Phoenix Rising
by Matchbox Dragon
Summary: Sequel to Phoenix Emergent. Warren's journey to becoming a fire elemental, the ultimate pyro, continues a few years later.
1. Prologue: The Guardians of the City

_**Disclaimer: **I do not own Sky High or its characters, settings etc, all of which belong to Disney. _

_**A/N:** This story continues after Phoenix Emergent – please read that one first or this won't make that much sense._

**Prologue: The Guardians of the City**

It's time to fast-forward a few years, past high school graduation and out into the world. Will followed his parents into the family business and joined Stronghold Superior Realty because it was convenient having a flexible cover job. Kate became a freelance photographer, also partially so that she could leave in a hurry every now and then to help save the day. Layla was studying ecology and hoping to find a job as an environmentalist that would also allow flexible working hours. Warren put his pyro-psionic ability to good use (albeit surreptitiously) as a firefighter and Ethan was working on his doctorate in Superhero Physiology. Zach was studying electronics, and he showed such a surprising aptitude that he began to design high-tech communication equipment for superheroes. Magenta became a computer programmer and could hack into almost anything, possibly even a Death Star (which had earned her the nickname R2-D2 from guess who).

When Warren graduated from Sky High, it was generally expected that he would go straight into the hero business with some (hopefully fireproof) sidekick trailing after him. However, he won his appeal to the National Council of Superheroes and spent two years on hiatus from hero work while he waited for his friends to finish high school. Thanks to Warren's success with the National Council, the whole group was able to buck the hero-sidekick convention by forming a crime-fighting team made up of The Eagle (Will), Knight-Fire (Warren), The Dryad (Layla), Flame-Archer (Kate), Fluid Genius (Ethan), Ultra-Violet (Magenta) and Lumo (Zach, who had finally given up on the idea of 'Zach-Attack' when it was pointed out to him that a secret identity is kind of pointless if you have your real name as part of your alter-ego).

They called themselves The Guardians of the City. The Commander and Jetstream still handled the national and international crises while Will and his friends took over protecting Maxville locally.

The group had also largely taken over the Stronghold's Secret Sanctum. When they first formed their team, Will's parents had allowed them a small corner at the far end, next to the pool table. In a couple of years they had annexed the area from the pinball machine to Jetstream's scientific equipment desk, which was soon replaced by Magenta's computer set-up. They'd moved the pool table into the Strongholds' half of the Sanctum because there just wasn't enough space for it on their side, what with Zach's work bench, Ethan's medical supplies and the new couches and coffee table. Poor Steve had had to put his precious trophy collection into storage.

This evening was a team meeting, apparently, although it certainly didn't look much like it. Ethan was updating his Heroes & Villains scrapbook on the coffee table and Zach was sitting on a couch, trying to sew his logo badge back onto his uniform. Warren, Will, Kate and Magenta were sitting on the floor playing Uno according to some variant rules, such as all four of them slapping the discard pile when Maj played a 9.

"Ow," complained Will as Kate smacked her hand on top of his.

"Sorry," she apologized, drawing two cards for being last.

Warren smirked lazily and gave her a significant look. It was one of the rules they'd made up themselves, that anybody who apologized to another player for any reason had to draw two cards.

"Hey! That's not fair," objected Layla from the couch behind Magenta as Kate sighed and drew the cards, "You set her up for that one."

"All's fair in love and Uno, apparently," commented Ethan without even looking up from his scrapbook.

"Which is probably why I don't play with you guys anymore," Layla observed with a wry smile. She was busy plaiting one of Magenta's purple streaks into a mini-braid, as she often did during team meetings. Warren had always thought that was something girls grew out of in junior high, but he supposed he should be grateful Layla didn't feel the urge to run her fingers through _his_ hair, which fell a bit past his shoulders these days. At least, not in public.

Now where did that last thought come from?

Apparently Maj also had something to say on the subject of her hair. "Why do you always plait only my purple bits? Not that I'm criticizing or anything, just wondering."

Now it was Layla's turn to get curious. "How do you know I'm plaiting your streak? You can't see what I'm doing behind your back."

"I just know," she replied, "It's not a big deal. I mean, Warren knows where his streaks are too, don't you?" She turned to Warren who calmly separated each of the red bits from the rest of his hair without looking.

"That's so cool, man," said Zach, who still got excited over almost anything.

"Yeah, it's one of my secret super powers," Warren deadpanned.

Maj added, "I've got it too, only Boomer still made me a sidekick."

Zach muttered something less than complimentary about their old gym teacher and went back to his repairs. The Guardians' uniforms were quite non-traditional too. Shunning spandex completely, they all wore a black catsuit composed almost entirely from Kevlar 29, along with a long duster coat in each person's signature color. To add to their individuality, they also had a small badge with their personal logo just below the throat, which was what Zach was trying to sew back on. 'Trying' being the operative word, as he swore softly in Chinese (he had picked up a few words from Warren so that he could swear without getting into trouble with Maj) when he stuck himself in the finger with the needle.

Magenta looked at him as he held up his failed handiwork. "Oh, just give it here," she sighed, and tossed her cards in the discard pile.

"Hey, don't fold. I need an ally against these guys," protested Kate.

Zach held out his uniform but didn't quite hand it over. "Uh, what about Layla's anti-sexism rule about not expecting the female members to fix, clean or iron our uniforms?"

Maj rolled her eyes as she took it from him. "It's more dangerous to my sanity being forced to watch you mess it up completely, _dear_." After a number of years of their on-off routine, the two of them had finally decided to be mature and try a serious relationship.

Ethan was watching this interchange with amusement. "Hey, how many clever blondes does it take to change a light bulb?"

"How many?" asked Layla with a smile which disappeared when she found that her cup of herbal tea had gotten cold.

"None. He just pretends to be stupid so someone else will to do it for him." Ethan finished his joke with a grin as Layla handed her mug to Warren who wrapped a hand around it.

"Nice one, Popsicle," said the pyro, heating his hand just enough to re-warm the tea and then giving it back to Layla. "Hey Z, now that you've managed to get out of fixing your uniform, can you work on my sunglasses? I think the HUD got a bit fried when I hit the ground yesterday."

Warren handed over a pair of what looked like ordinary aviator sunglasses, and Zach took them to his workbench and started fiddling. The glasses, which played an essential role in the Guardians' field comms, were some of his finest electronic work. Apart from making them all look exceptionally cool and being a pretty effective disguise, the sunglasses also carried a microphone for comms and a mini-camera, and the lenses had a heads-up display (HUD).

"You made a bit of a mess of this, dude," said Zach as he snapped the narrow cover plate back into place on the ear piece after some careful re-soldering of the circuitry. "I'd really appreciate it if you, like, didn't do that again."

"Yeah, I'd also appreciate it if I didn't get shot again," Warren remarked dryly as he shuffled and dealt the cards for the next round. "You in, Z?"

Zach nodded as he handed the glasses back. And he had to admit, Warren's latest nickname for him wasn't too bad.

"Speaking of you getting shot," Will regarded Warren with a slight frown, "That's something we need to discuss – your forfeit for that little stunt."

They had worked out long ago that they needed some form of punishment to discourage team members from being too reckless unnecessarily. While legitimate heroics were obviously part and parcel of what they did, none of them were exactly immortal. If they were going to be an effective team, The Guardians needed all of their members alive and uninjured. So they'd developed the forfeit system, a light-hearted game that was played with complete seriousness. The forfeits usually involved something more embarrassing than actually painful, and were a strictly private affair – what happened in the Sanctum, stayed in the Sanctum.

Warren sighed. "It wasn't a big deal, Stronghold. I can take a hit, remember?" Not to mention the Kevlar 29 catsuit.

"That's not the point, Warren, and you know it," replied Will. "You didn't _have_ to make like a human shield. You could have just pushed the Ambassador out of the way."

"So that whichever other politician was standing behind him could take the hit instead?" Warren pointed out.

"It was a split-second decision, Will, give him a break," put in Layla. "It's not like any of us has the power to slow down time."

Will glanced at Layla. She seemed to be siding with Warren a lot lately. Not that it was ever really a serious issue of rivalry between himself and the pyro, but he often got the impression that Warren and Layla were closer to each other than to anyone else in the group. In fact, Will couldn't help wondering…

"Okay, let's put it to the vote, like always," Kate broke his train of thought.

A quick vote later, and Layla was the only one who thought he didn't deserve a forfeit.

"And you can't escape this one with a lucky game of poker," warned Ethan. Warren had managed to win his way out of the last two forfeits he'd earned with some good cards and some even better bluffing.

Will grinned. "Warren, you can stop pouting."

"I'm _not!_" was the indignant response.

But actually he was, thought Layla. Of course, he had the lips for it. She wondered, as she often had, what it would be like to kiss those lips. Not that she was in love with one of her best friends or anything. Been there, done that. And it was purely coincidental that he happened to be one of the best looking guys she knew. No, it was just idle curiosity. Wasn't it?

Both her musing and the team's deliberation on Warren's forfeit came to an abrupt halt when the Red Telephone rang. Will jumped up to answer it as usual, and Layla was about to ask why he was always the one who got to do that. As usual.

This time Warren anticipated her argument. "Let him play the little receptionist if he wants to, Hippie."

Her response to that was cut off by Will putting the phone down and turning to them. "Guys, the city's about to be in trouble. We have work to do."

"Aw nuts!" exclaimed Zach, throwing down his last remaining card. "Just when I was about to win for the first time in, like, for ever!"

* * *

_**A/N:** Welcome back to the second part of this story. As you can see, we have a romantic sub-plot, which I hope won't scare some people away too much … maybe if the non-shippers scroll quickly through the romantic scenes you'll still be able to enjoy the story… ;)_


	2. Chapter 1: Under the Weather

_**Disclaimer: **I do not own Sky High or its characters, settings etc, all of which belong to Disney. _

**_A/N: I strongly recommend that if you haven't read Phoenix Emergent first, please go to my profile page and read it before this story._**

**Chapter 1: Under the Weather**

Magenta went straight to her laptop and opened her extensive database on all known people with super-powers. "Okay, what sort of trouble are we looking at?"

"The Mayor's just received a ransom demand from a villain calling himself Weatherman," replied Will, standing next to her chair.

"I've heard of him," put in Ethan, joining Will looking over Magenta's shoulder, "His M.O. is to terrorize cities into paying him huge amounts of money by totally wrecking the weather."

Zach stretched as he got up lazily. "Doesn't sound so bad then."

"I'm not talking about a few picnics and ballgames getting rained out, Zach," Ethan replied, "This guy does blizzards, ice storms, you name it. He once even did a massive tornado in Kansas."

"He hasn't reared his ugly head in a while," commented Maj from what she'd been reading on her screen. "Last sighting was five years ago when he squeezed Los Angeles for $1,000,000 the day before the Oscars."

"And, what, he's broke already?" remarked Warren dryly.

"So why hasn't any superhero arrested him?" Layla asked.

"Good timing, it seems," said Magenta, "Like he probably thinks Maxville is vulnerable because the Commander and Jetstream are out of the country."

"Also," added Ethan as he read over Maj's shoulder, "It appears he's avoided cities like Gotham and Metropolis 'cos he knows they're well-protected."

"So, how are we going to find him?" asked Kate.

"The Mayor said his staff already tried to trace the call, but the number they tracked it to doesn't exist." Will gave the number and the exact time of the call to Magenta who started doing what she did best on her computer, and then went on, "We're gonna need the element of surprise here, 'cos if he starts throwing blizzards around it'll affect all of our powers, the two of you especially." He looked at Kate and Warren, who both needed a certain minimum temperature to be able to produce their respective types of fire.

"Don't worry about me, I have backup," replied Warren holding up his Zippo lighter, which he could use with his second power if he wasn't able to power up pyrokinetically. The lighter was embossed with a phoenix, which he had chosen as his personal logo – more to honor his mother, who had been a hero called Firebird, than to humor Ethan's pet theory that he was a fire elemental.

"Okay, I got him," said Magenta. "He bounced the call all over town, but it originally came from here." She tapped her screen which showed the location in downtown Maxville, and then turned to the others. "Of course, there's no guarantee that that's where he's set up camp; that's just where he phoned from."

"It's a good place to start," replied Will.

"It makes sense," Ethan said to Maj, "I mean, if that's not where he's hanging out, why would he go to so much trouble to cover his tracks?"

"Yeah, but just because – " she started, but she was cut off.

Will clapped his hands. "Guys, guys! You can discuss this on the way. Let's get a move on, people!"

"Yes sir, Mr. Super-Tights!" said Kate, earning a round of grins and a dirty look from her boyfriend. The nickname was an old reference to the struggles Will had had with his parents expecting him to wear a spandex super-suit, preferably one that matched theirs.

Gearing up was a well-rehearsed exercise for the team. At the press of a button, a screen was lowered from the ceiling, and they took turns to duck behind it and do a quick-change into their uniforms. Next came the gloves, sunglasses and earphones. Maj packed up her laptop, Zach grabbed his toolbox, cramming his soldering iron back into it, and Ethan got his Advanced First Aid medical bag. Layla checked she had a couple of seedlings in her utility belt and she, Will, Warren and Kate pocketed two neutralizing bracelets each. Unlike the heavy old-style power-neutralizing restraints, these bracelets were lightweight and much easier to handle in action. They were created by a transmutator called the Alchemistress. Apparently she'd been at Sky High at the same time as them, but they'd never heard of anyone with that power. Of course, if Boomer had done his usual trick and stuck her in sidekick class, where powers were not openly discussed, it wasn't actually that surprising that they didn't know who she was.

Less than two minutes later, they were ready to go. Will flew off ahead, and the rest of them piled into the Guardian Van with Zach driving. It appeared to be an ordinary surveillance van with darkened windows – until it took off, that is. Like the new Sky High school buses, it had VTOL capabilities, so they didn't need to drive off a dead-end highway ramp in order to get airborne.

In the back of the vehicle, Maj hooked her laptop up to the computer set-up that was basically a traveling duplicate of the one in the Sanctum. It took up the whole of one side of the van, apart from the large size photo of the team in costume which was entitled '_Zach's so bright we gotta wear shades_'. She flicked the switches on her boyfriend's equipment on the other side, and the group tested their comms. Ethan, meanwhile, switched on his health monitors which recorded data sent by the biosensors in the teams' uniforms.

Zach landed the van on a deserted street a few blocks from the address Magenta's search had provided, and then climbed in the back with the others. Will soon joined them, and closed the back doors.

"Okay, he's in there alright, but it's gonna be difficult getting to him." He nodded to Zach who switched on the playback monitor that had been recording from Will's sunglasses camera. "As you can see, he's on the fourth floor and he's got quite a mean security camera system."

"He doesn't seem to be monitoring anything coming from the air, considering he didn't spot you," Kate commented.

"Yeah, but even so, once Eagle goes in the window, Weatherman would have him on his radar," replied Ethan.

"I can fly quite fast, you know," Will pointed out.

"How about someone, uh, small?" suggested Zach, looking at Maj who just rolled her eyes. She'd always hated using her shape-shifting power, and much preferred to rely on her other skills.

"No," said Layla, "There's still too much of a risk that he'll spot anyone who goes in there. He needs to be restrained from a safe distance."

* * *

Layla carefully laid one of her seedlings on the pavement next to the wall of Weatherman's hideout. As the thin tree grew quickly under her power, she grabbed a branch and rode it up to the fourth floor, keeping to the wall area where there weren't windows. Warren and Kate watched from below while Will hovered in line with the window where he'd first spotted the villain, who was facing away from the window, watching his security monitors. Apparently, for all his surveillance set-up inside the building, there didn't appear to be any cameras on the outside.

When Layla reached the fourth floor, she stopped the tree's growth and took out another seedling. Guided by the live video feed from Will's sunglasses camera which Zach uploaded to her heads-up display, she directed the vines into the window and cautiously towards the villain. The vines were almost there when Weatherman suddenly turned around with a malicious smile and raised his hands as he powered up.

He'd known they were there all along.

Will flew into the window to attack the villain as a miniature ice storm erupted around Layla. The extreme cold hit her and she lost her grip on her tree and fell, her long forest green coat fluttering around her. Warren caught her as she lost consciousness and lowered her shivering body carefully to the ground.

Meanwhile Will managed to distract Weatherman from continuing his attack on Layla by ramming him into the far wall of the building. He whipped out a neutralizing bracelet and was about to handcuff the apparently unconscious villain when a blast of wind threw him back. Will dropped the bracelet and it slipped into one of Weatherman's pockets, quite by accident.

When Will picked himself up the villain had made his escape. "Damn."

'_Don't worry, Eagle,'_ came Zach's voice over the comm, _'We can track him from the neutralizer's energy signature.'_

'_How's Dryad?'_ asked Maj.

"Freezing, what do you expect?" replied Warren a bit more harshly than he intended. Her breathing was slow and shallow, and her skin was ghostly pale. Sitting on the pavement, he had her cradled in his arms as he tried to share some of his natural excess body heat with her.

_'First, you need to warm up her head, neck and chest,'_ instructed Ethan, _'That's where her vital organs are.'_

Her _chest_? Uh, despite the fact that the situation was life-threatening, this was a little embarrassing. Layla would _not_ be impressed if she was awake.

"A little help here, Archer?"

"You're the only one who can actually help her, Knight-Fire," Kate replied. If it wasn't so serious it would be almost comical that he was being such a gentleman about touching Layla. "I don't generate actual heat like you do, just sparks and fire. And we're a little short on hot water bottles in the van."

Will landed next to them. "Yeah, but it doesn't need to be done right now, does it? You can thaw her out later, right? Like when Freeze-Girl froze people?" he asked uncertainly. Of course he didn't want to leave Layla in this state but they needed to get a move on, even though Maj could track Weatherman now.

'_Actually, it can't wait,'_ Ethan answered, _'Freeze-Girl's powers put a person instantly into a type of cryo stasis that was perfectly safe. This isn't the same thing at all – Dryad's hypothermic, and her vitals…'_ His voice trailed off.

"Her vitals what, Ethan?" snapped Warren, his concern obvious.

'_She's dying.'_

Warren looked up at Will over the top of his sunglasses. As the team's unspoken but generally accepted leader, it was up to him to make the final decision, but he could see from the look in Warren's eyes he was about to have a mutiny on his hands. Much as he would really like the pyro with him when they caught up with Weatherman, he ultimately had one only choice.

He gave Warren a nod.

Then he and Kate left quickly, following the route Zach had uploaded to their heads-up display.

* * *

Well, isn't this romantic, thought Warren as he carefully enfolded Layla in his arms, her chest pressed up against the warmth of his body and her head in the crook of his neck. Not that it was unpleasant or anything, but it was a good thing she was unconscious or she would probably nail him for this.

After about fifteen minutes she had almost stopped shivering and Ethan reported that her vital signs were looking more stable. Warren shifted his grip slightly and gently warmed her fingers and toes to prevent frostbite.

Layla opened her eyes and pulled away a bit so that she could look up at him in the dim streetlight.

"How are you feeling?" he asked.

"Cold," she whispered.

"Yeah, I'm doing what I can about that."

"You could kiss me."

Tempting … very tempting.

"I don't think that would help much," he answered.

"I do," she replied dazedly, "Pretend I'm Snow White."

Evidently the cold had seriously affected her thinking.

"If you really want to help, kiss me."

Now, how could he argue with that?

* * *

Will and Kate caught up with Weatherman quickly – like he said earlier, he _could_ fly pretty fast. The villain had fled to an old warehouse a few blocks away. Finding him had been easy enough, but getting close enough to apprehend him was another story entirely. The weather controller had surrounded himself with a solid wall of freezing cold rain.

"It could be worse," commented Kate as she backed away a bit to keep dry while Will flew around the liquid barrier, trying to penetrate the downpour, "He could be throwing a blizzard at us."

'_Guess he's a bit worse for wear after his fight with Eagle just now,'_ put in Zach.

Will wasn't having much luck. Kate created a number of her flame constructs in succession, sending each one on a suicide mission into the rainstorm, but that didn't help either.

The rain kept pouring. Will landed heavily next to her, shivering a bit.

"You okay?" she asked, concerned.

"Too cold to fly," he replied. "And I'm not getting anywhere."

Suddenly the rain stopped. Weatherman had left the building.

Will looked up at the handful of flame constructs that were still circling where the villain had been. Evidently they were more waterproof than Kate had realized. "I thought you could only do one at a time?" he asked.

"Me too," she replied. "I guess they're on auto-pilot or something, like when I send one off as a messenger."

"Are they out of your control now?" They'd need to clean them up before they chased after the villain again, not that Will was really feeling up to anything of the sort.

"No, it just seems that I can only consciously control one at a time." One by one she took control of the dragon-shaped constructs and dispersed each one into a small cloud of sparks that hissed as they landed on the flooded floor.

Having got his breath back a bit while Kate was busy, Will asked Maj, "So, where did he go?"

'_Apparently he hasn't gone anywhere,'_ she sounded confused, _'He's still in the warehouse with you. Or at least the neutralizer is.'_

Will splashed through the puddles to where Magenta's tracking system claimed the energy signature was coming from, and fished in the shallow water until he found the neutralizing bracelet.

Either by design or chance, Weatherman had found the way to give them the slip.

* * *

_**A/N:** In case anyone's interested, I took some liberties with Ethan's instructions for treating hypothermia … artistic license and all that._


	3. Chapter 2: Icebreaker

_**Disclaimer: **I do not own Sky High or its characters, settings etc, all of which belong to Disney. _

**Chapter 2: Icebreaker**

Layla woke slowly. The first thing she was aware of was not being cold anymore. Then she realized she was lying in some sort of hospital bed with an IV in her left arm and someone was holding her other hand, and she was pretty sure it was too warm to be her mother's. She opened her eyes, and sure enough, the hand that was holding hers was connected to a wrist tattooed with flames.

Suddenly she remembered why she had been so cold and how Warren had defrosted her with his body heat, and then he'd kissed her and it had been _her_ suggestion … okay this was embarrassing.

He was busy reading a book so he hadn't noticed that she was awake yet. She had a few moments to try and think of some sort of plausible excuse for her behavior. What had possessed her to actually ask him to kiss her?

She'd been right about one thing, though. That kiss _had_ warmed her up…

Warren released her hand to turn the page, and saw her looking up at him.

"Hey, Sleeping Beauty." He put his book aside. "Or is it, Snow White?"

"Hey, Warren," she said quietly. Snow White? What? Oh, yes…

"How are you feeling?"

"Warm. Which is a real plus," she replied with a smile. "Uh, thanks for saving me." He shrugged it off, like usual. "So, what did I miss? Did Will and Kate get Weatherman?"

Warren shook his head.

She sighed. It was all her –

"Not your fault, Layla." He interrupted her thoughts. How did he know she was thinking that?

"But what about the Mayor and the ransom demand?"

Warren gave a slight smirk. "Seems Weatherman got a good scare and ran for it. So, no need to worry about that either."

"Um, anything else interesting happen?" she asked, trying to avoid the awkward issue on her mind.

He thought for a moment. "Sparky found out that she can play with more than one construct at a time as long as she doesn't try to control them all at once. Bad news is Stronghold was grounded by getting too cold."

"He can't fly anymore?" Layla asked anxiously.

"He's fine now. It took him a while to warm up enough to get airborne, though." He suddenly looked at her intensely. "You know, Layla, we can spend hours skirting round the issue, or we can just get this conversation over."

"Or we can just forget about it," she suggested with false brightness.

"Or not," he replied. "Look, I've had some time to plan this discussion. If you like, I'll fill in your lines of dialogue so you don't feel too embarrassed."

Okay, whatever you think makes it easier, she thought. And maybe, just maybe, they'd be able to put this awkward moment behind them and still be friends.

He seemed to be waiting for a response, so she glanced at him briefly and nodded before fixing her gaze on her feet under the bed sheets again.

Warren took a deep breath and spoke quickly, probably to get it over faster. "Okay, I say 'Layla, we need to talk about that kiss,' and you say 'Look Warren, no offense, it was a nice kiss, _but_ I just don't feel that way about you,' and then I say 'Yes, I'm really sorry and don't worry, I won't cross the line like that again' and then you – "

"No, wait, stop." Layla held up a hand as she cut him off. This was completely not what she had anticipated and she needed a moment to work this one out. If _he_ thought _he'd_ crossed the line because he thought _she_ didn't feel that way about _him_, then that meant _he_ …

"What?" he prompted softly.

"I think you're reading from the wrong script," she looked at him with a slight smile.

He took a moment to review what he'd just said. "It wasn't a nice kiss?" he asked, throwing in some wry humor with his concern.

Her smile grew. "It was a very nice kiss, and there is no 'but'."

It didn't take him long to figure out what she meant.

He gave her a rare smile and took her hand again.

* * *

The south elevator at Maxville Hospital didn't stop at every floor. Fortunately, people didn't seem to notice that the gap between the fourth and fifth floors was twice as long as any of the other intervals. Of course, there were always some wackos who posted theories on internet discussion boards that there was a top secret UFO study center complete with alien dissection labs etc., but thankfully nobody takes those guys seriously.

Will, Kate, Zach and Maj got into the elevator, and Will brushed his thumb over the hidden biometric scanner. Floor numbers 4 and 5 lit up simultaneously and the elevator rose without stopping at any other floors (which no doubt annoyed people waiting for the elevator) until it reached 4a, the level for people with superpowers.

Ethan met them when they got out and led them down the corridor past the Super Metabolism Lab and the Toxic Waste Recovery Room to the normal rooms. The Guardians were fortunate that none of them had spent much time in the hospital, except to visit Ethan at work.

When they were almost at Layla's room, Ethan cautioned them to silence because she might still be sleeping. They peeked in the window through the blinds, and what they saw caused their collective jaws to drop, literally.

Warren and Layla were holding hands. Not only that, but judging from the way they were looking at each other and how close their faces were, they were about three seconds away from a kiss.

Well, what do you know. Will had often wondered, very privately to himself, about the possibility of deeper feelings there, but it was still quite a surprise actually _seeing_ them like that.

Kate was the first to recover. She quietly took out her camera and aimed it carefully between the window blinds just as Warren's lips met Layla's. Quickly she snapped three shots, just in case in the first didn't come out, and then beckoned the others away back up the corridor.

"Come on!" she whispered when they just stood there. After a moment of sharing puzzled looks, they joined her.

"Where are we going?" asked Will, but his girlfriend just smiled impishly.

"Man, he's gonna kill you," said Zach as they got back into the elevator.

Kate hit the button for the ground floor. "Good thing I'm fireproof, huh?"

"Lucky you," muttered Zach, evidently afraid of getting caught in the crossfire.

The others followed her in confusion as she led them quickly to the hospital gift shop near the main entrance, up to a Print-Your-Own-Digital-Photos machine.

"I could never figure out why they would have one of these at a hospital," she said, carefully taking the memory stick out of her camera and sliding it into the machine, "But now I'm seeing the point." She held out the newly developed photo of Warren and Layla caught in the act.

"What, because you never know when you might need to develop blackmail photos?" asked Magenta with a smirk, admiring the picture.

Will caught on. "Not blackmail, Maj. Forfeit."

* * *

When they entered the room, both Warren and Layla greeted them with an expression that was almost challenging, as if they expected some sort of opposition from their friends.

Quite the opposite. "Well, it's about time!" exclaimed Will with a grin as he clapped Warren on the shoulder.

The new couple shared a glance, a little embarrassed.

"How are you feeling?" asked Magenta while Ethan checked Layla's medical chart even though she wasn't actually his patient.

"Much better, thanks," replied the redhead, and then she turned to Will and Kate, "I'm sorry you guys lost Weatherman, though."

Will smiled reassuringly. "We'll get another chance, I'm sure."

Warren, who had been watching Kate almost since the group had arrived, asked her suddenly, "All right, what are you looking so smug about?"

In response she just kept smiling and Will handed him an envelope.

"What's this?"

"Your forfeit from the other day," replied Will who was trying to keep a straight face, and failing miserably.

"Damn. I was hoping you'd forget about that."

"No such luck, dude." Zach was very brave from his position of relative safety hiding behind Kate (not that he really _could_ hide behind someone a foot shorter than himself).

Warren opened the envelope and slid the photo out enough to see what it was and then fixed Will and Kate, the obvious guilty parties, with a dirty look each. "Okay, that's it. No more Mr. Nice Guy. No more letting you win at Uno, no more – "

"Hey!" Layla cut him off as she grabbed the envelope from him and looked at the picture. "I'm in the photo too. Why should I have to pay a forfeit as well?"

"Uh, you went and got yourself frozen." Will knew he was grabbing at straws.

Zach added, "Yeah. That was real careless of you."

* * *

Layla stared at herself in the mirror and sighed, "Why am I so nervous?"

Zach had once gone for some conspiracy theory that the government (or whoever) was watching everybody through their mirrors which were actually one-way glass with hidden cameras, and so he'd urged them all repeatedly, for three very long weeks, not to talk to their reflections.

At this point, Layla was prepared to talk to anyone who could help her to calm down, even a secret government (or whoever) agent.

It was her first date with Warren – despite the fact that they'd already shared their first kiss, or two – and she knew she was acting like a silly teenager with a crush. She couldn't _believe_ she hadn't grown out of constantly changing her mind about what to wear, but the state of her bedroom, carpeted in rejected outfits, showed how frazzled she was.

As her mother had said a few minutes ago, what was there to worry about? It wasn't like this was a blind date or some cute guy that she barely knew and she'd have to spend half the evening trying to make awkward conversation. He was her best friend, for goodness sake! Everything was going to be fine.

Layla sighed again and dropped her head into her hands. The peptalk-to-self just wasn't working.

So she might as well admit it. She was terrified.

Fortunately he arrived just then, which pretty much made up her mind what to wear by default. She was forced to stay clad in her most recent decision, a long silk dress in jade that was one of her favorites. She picked her way across the clothing covered floor and went downstairs.

"Uh, wow," she said as she opened the door, "You didn't have to dress up just for me."

He was wearing dark charcoal trousers and a black dress shirt, both of which she'd had a large hand in nagging, uh, helping him to buy. Dressing up for Warren didn't quite entail a tie or abandoning his trademark leather jacket, but hey, this was impressive enough for her.

"Well, it _is_ traditional to dress up for a date, especially the first one," he replied lightly.

And since when do _you_ go by what's traditional? thought Layla.

She was about to say something on that score, but he continued, "Just like it's traditional to bring a girl flowers…" And with that he handed her a small packet with a brightly colored picture.

"Summer Wildflower Selection?" Layla read the seed packet incredulously.

Warren gave her his most innocent look (apart from the humor shining in his dark eyes) and then, making all her nervousness evaporate into laughter the way only he could, he made his point.

"Well, in your hands, they're practically flowers already, right?"


	4. Chapter 3: Fight or Flight

_**Disclaimer: **I do not own Sky High or its characters, settings etc, all of which belong to Disney. _

**Chapter 3: Fight or Flight**

The next 18 months saw some changes for the Guardians. The biggest upheaval came when the Strongholds finally decided that they wanted their Secret Sanctum back, which meant that the group needed to find new headquarters. They chose a double-storey penthouse apartment in town, largely because of an architectural quirk – the elevator for the top two floors was separate to the one for the rest of the building. Zach rigged their elevator with a biometric sensor to ensure their privacy, an essential ingredient for a superhero center of operations. They were also the only people with access to the roof, where they parked the van, ready for take off. Ethan was initially afraid that people on the street might notice a flying vehicle coming and going and get suspicious, but the truth is, nobody ever looks up. The average person rarely looks much above their own eye-line unless something specifically draws their attention from above.

The roof was also home to Layla's greenhouse, where she was working on a fire-resistant strain of ivy, and she loved to tease the others that she was trying to breed a man-eating plant. The lower storey of the apartment housed Zach's workshop, Ethan's lab, Kate's darkroom and their own gym. The upper storey looked a lot like the Secret Sanctum. The inner walls were knocked down so that it was all one big room, complete with pool table, couches and a kitchenette in the corner. One wall was taken up by Magenta's computer set-up and Zach's array of monitors. On another wall there was a bulletin board, which was used for team mementoes, newspaper clippings and forfeit photos, such as one of Zach in Magenta's purple apron (!) and, of course, everybody's favorite of Warren and Layla.

(Warren had his revenge for that photo, by the way. Soon after Will moved out and got his own bachelor apartment nearer to their headquarters, Warren managed to convince Josie Stronghold that Will and Kate had recently discovered that they actually _liked_ Chinese food but were too proud to admit it to their friends, considering both of them had spent so many years complaining about everybody wanting to go to the Paper Lantern. Will just couldn't understand why his mother kept on serving him and Kate Chinese every time they went to his parents for dinner. This lasted for about a month until Will finally found out what was going on.)

Ethan was now Dr. Ethan Franklin, PhD, and he was starting on his second doctorate – Advanced Superhero Medicine. Zach worked in R&D for an electronics firm and Maj was a programmer for an anti-virus software company.

Layla hadn't been able to find a job in ecology with flexible hours yet. In the meantime she was working in her aunt's herbalist store (her mother's sister had the ability to sense the medicinal or toxic properties of any plant she looked at). To salve her environmental conscience, she borrowed the van every few months to fly to the Amazon to do some large scale tree-planting. Thanks to the Dryad, huge tracts of decimated rainforest were being renewed.

She had also joined an environmental activist group, which was the reason she was late for this evening's team meeting. While the rest of the Guardians waited patiently in their headquarters, Environmentally Active Women were talking to the Mayor about the City's recycling program.

The Mayor was just about to agree with their Proposed Penalties For Factories Non-Compliant With Municipal Recycling Quotas, when the door burst open and a fireball flew low over their heads into the opposite wall amid shrieks from the environmentalists.

Déjà vu, thought Layla, and she felt it even more so when the perpetrator entered the office. Even though he hadn't gone for the cloaked-and-hooded look favored by Incendiary & Co., there was no doubt he was related to the villains who had crashed her sophomore sidekick class years ago, although he seemed to be a lot younger, not much older than 20.

"What is this?" demanded the Mayor, reaching for the phone and then jumping back when a fireball seared that part of his desk.

"Don't even think about calling for help," snapped the villain, while Layla surreptitiously fiddled with her necklace to activate her alarm button on the back of her pendant. Under the pretense of cowering away from the intimidating pyro as he strode up to the Mayor, she fitted her earphone and re-arranged her hair slightly to hide it. She carefully slid her aviator sunglasses out of her jacket pocket and hooked them over her collar in an apparently casual manner, and switched on the camera.

* * *

When Layla's alarm went off in the Guardians' headquarters, she had their attention instantly. Will and Warren's game of pool, Kate's reading of Cosmo, Zach and Maj's thumb wrestling and Ethan's research dictation all came to an abrupt halt. They gathered around quickly as Zach switched on the monitor for her sunglasses camera.

'_Who are you?'_ the Mayor on the screen was asking.

'_I am Arson,'_ replied the villain, igniting one hand and sending flames across the desk for dramatic effect.

Everybody looked at Ethan for further info, but he shook his head. "The name's kind of familiar, but we've never come across this guy before."

"He's not on my database, which is a little disturbing," put in Magenta after a few seconds' research.

"But there's no doubt what family he's from," said Will, with a sidelong glance at Warren who looked less than comfortable with the idea of Layla being at the mercy of one of his villainous cousins.

* * *

"What do you want?" asked the Mayor, and Arson pulled out a small device.

'_Hey, that looks like the latest BlackBerry,'_ came Zach's voice on Layla's comm.

"Your network passwords for the past three years."

'_What could he want obsolete passwords for?'_ Maj sounded very confused.

The Mayor was flabbergasted. "How am I supposed to remember all the passwords I've had since the beginning of my term? They change every month, you know."

"I know that," Arson replied somewhat sarcastically, "I also know that each one is unique. Now, start jogging your memory or people start dying!"

The rest of Environmentally Active Women screamed again as Layla turned to the Mayor. "Sir, you can't give in to his demands," she raised her voice to be heard over the hysteria.

"Don't let him kill us, Mr. Mayor!" shrieked one of the activists, and then she added to Layla more quietly, "Please don't think I'm a coward, Layla. But who will carry on our valuable work if we're dead?"

Layla rolled her eyes at the woman's transparent self-centeredness and turned her attention back to the Mayor who obviously thought that some out of date passwords were not worth risking everybody's lives for. Arson entered each codeword into his 'BlackBerry' until the Mayor couldn't think of any more.

"What about the rest?" demanded the young villain.

"Give me a few minutes to think," replied the Mayor, and Layla wondered if he might just be stalling for time. She looked around at the office plants, but there was nothing even remotely fireproof. She knew from years of joking with Warren that if she tried to tie the pyro up in branches he would simply burn his way out. Also, it would be very difficult to knock him out, so that option was out too. She would just have to wait for her friends to arrive.

But Arson was getting impatient. "This is taking too long. I'm sure your little gang of pet superheroes is gonna be here soon. It's time to clear out." He walked towards the door. "Let's go, Mayor-Man."

Layla stepped into his path. "You don't think really you're going to get away with this that easily, do you?"

'_Back off, Layla,'_ growled Warren's voice over her earphone, but she ignored his advice.

"How do you think you're going to stop me, huh?" The pyro ignited one hand and Layla took a quick step backwards. "Yeah that's better, your attitude's improving already. In fact, I think you're coming along too."

* * *

As the Guardian Van sped towards the City Hall, they watched the monitor helplessly as Arson bullied the Mayor and Layla onto the roof and up to the Mayor's helicopter. The villain gave the waiting pilot an instruction, but Layla couldn't hear it over the sound of the rotors from where she was standing. The pilot looked at the Mayor for confirmation; this was not exactly what he'd expected when the order arrived a few minutes ago to start up the helicopter.

The chopper was just airborne when the Guardians arrived, and Will sped over. He grabbed hold of one of the landing skids and started to pull the aircraft back towards the ground. Arson opened his cabin door and threw a fireball at Will, which had no effect whatsoever.

The villain let Will know in no uncertain terms that if he didn't release the helicopter and keep his distance, he would start roasting the hostages … one limb at a time. Will had no choice but to allow them to leave. He flew back to the van and told Zach to follow the chopper, but not too close, while they tried to work out their next move.

"Still don't get what he'd want with all those passwords," commented Zach as he set the course to follow the hijacked helicopter. Will shrugged as best he could while flying alongside.

In the back of the van, Kate suggested, "Maybe he's some kind of super-hacker or something." She was looking at Maj. "I mean, you needed three passwords to defuse that bomb last week."

Kate's random suggestion triggered something in Ethan's memory. "That's it! Now I know who he is," he exclaimed. "Remember when Incendiary and his crew were interrogating you about your family? One of the other guys mentioned a kid called Arson who'd hacked into some database. This must be the same guy."

"Okay, so then he might be doing more on his 'BlackBerry' than just taking notes." Magenta's fingers were already busy on her keyboard. "Let me see if I can lock onto its frequency."

Kate said quietly to Ethan, "Look, I know you're a genius, but I can't believe you can remember a name mentioned casually six or seven years ago!"

"I can't usually," he replied with a modest smile. "But I remembered his name later that day and when I looked him up on my super villain trading cards he wasn't there, so I guess the name kinda stuck in my head."

"I don't believe this," murmured Maj, bringing their attention back to the present issue.

'_Why, what's he doing?'_ asked Will from outside.

"He's using the passwords to somehow convince the system he's been logged on for the past three years as the Mayor, and he's trying to use that as a backdoor."

"A backdoor into what?" asked Kate.

Magenta looked at them. "The Ultra-Max," she replied, referring to Maxville Ultimate Security Prison, the penitentiary for super-powered offenders. "He's engineering a prison break."

They exchanged concerned glances.

'_Didn't know the new BlackBerry came with a Get Your Family Out Of Jail Free function,'_ commented Zach from the cab.

"Not the standard model," replied Magenta, going back to her laptop, "It's that special upgrade you have to pay extra for."

"Very funny, kids," Warren said. "Now, could we focus on trying to stop him?"

"Way ahead of you, Hotshot." Maj had already started working on it at the same time as trading wit with her boyfriend; being a woman, she could multi-task.

"How are you doing?" Kate ventured after a few minutes of silent concentration.

"Fine, fine," said Maj distractedly, and then a message came up on her screen. "Oh damn, not so fine anymore."

"What?" asked Ethan.

Magenta sighed. "I must have set off some sort of alert. Now he knows someone's trying to stop him."

"Can you?"

"He's working much faster now. I can't keep up. I have no idea how you're going to do this, guys, but he needs to be distracted."

* * *

Layla sat through all this in stunned silence. She would never have guessed the young villain's plan was something so ambitious. Never mind 'needs to be distracted', he had to be stopped! And she was tired of being the reason the rest of the team were afraid to take action.

She unhooked her sunglasses and leaned forward, holding them in the hand that she rested on the back of the pilot's chair, and gave her friends her message under the guise of addressing the pilot. "You can't let him do this!" she said loudly, "There's more at stake here than just our lives." Layla looked directly into the miniature camera on her sunglasses, still apparently speaking to the pilot. "You have to bring the chopper down now, Flyboy!"

'_Are you insane?'_ replied Will on her comm.

"You're really getting on my nerves, girlie," said Arson, looking up from his 'BlackBerry'.

The distraction part of her plan seemed to be working, at least. "What are you gonna do?" she taunted, "Kill your own hostage?"

"I might just. See, the Mayor here, he's still useful – I might need some more passwords. You, however, are expendable."

Layla replied calmly, apparently to him but she was actually talking into her sunglasses cam, "In the big picture, we're all expendable."

Arson looked a bit suspicious. "What do you know about the 'big picture' here?"

'_I've almost got him,' _said Magenta.

Layla thought very quickly. "I know where we're going, and there's only one thing you could want to be doing at the Prison," she improvised, and he appeared to accept the explanation that she had heard him instruct the pilot before they took off. Unfortunately that meant he considered the conversation over and went back to his 'BlackBerry'.

She heard Magenta sigh. _'Damn, I'm behind again.'_

Layla sighed too, and she glanced over at the Mayor, who was eyeing her with some kind of awe, obviously impressed with her bravery. She tried to give him an encouraging smile.

Maj swore. _'He's locked me out. Eagle, this is it – I might not be able to get in again. We need to do something drastic, now!'_

'_We are NOT getting into a dogfight with the chopper!'_ snapped Warren. Layla wanted desperately to tell him not to worry about her and focus on the mission, but she couldn't risk Arson overhearing.

'_We don't have a choice anymore, I'm sorry,' _said Will, _'Dryad, you better brace yourself or something; you're probably gonna have a rough landing.'_

Layla glanced at Arson to check that he wasn't paying attention to her, and then looked into her sunglasses camera. "Just do it," she said softly.

A moment later the pilot veered the helicopter suddenly to one side as it was dive-bombed from behind and above at the same time, and Layla dropped her sunglasses.

"Brace yourself!" she yelled to the Mayor.

Will, who could turn on a dime, came back quickly for another run, forcing the helicopter to lose altitude. Arson looked up briefly and then went back to what he was doing. He seemed to realize that he was only just keeping his computer adversary at bay and he couldn't afford to be distracted anymore.

Will and the van took turns dive-bombing the chopper, driving it closer and closer to the ground. Layla looked out of the window and saw that they were about to land at a recreational center. At this time of the evening, the courts and grounds were mostly deserted, fortunately, but what really caught her eye was the swimming pool right nearby …

As soon as the helicopter touched down, still buffeted by Will's swooping and Zach's driving, Layla called up the garden plants to anchor it on the ground. Then she focused her powers on the rose bushes near the pool. One thorny branch ripped the cabin door open and a second pulled Arson out and dumped him, 'BlackBerry' and all, into the pool.

Layla scrambled out of the helicopter and directed the rose bushes to encase the villain in a small vertical cage in the middle of the pool, with only his head sticking out so that he could breathe but couldn't power up with the rest of his body underwater.

At this point, the van landed and Will, Warren and Kate came over to her.

She turned to them and said brightly, "Hey, guys. What, am I late for the meeting?"

* * *

Layla's moment of triumph lasted about that long – a moment. Will and Kate looked relieved she was all right; Kate even smiled slightly at her comment. But Warren appeared entirely less than impressed. Even behind his sunglasses she could feel his glower as he stalked abruptly past her to take care of Arson.

Layla withdrew the rose bushes and Will and Warren hauled the drowned rat of a villain out of the pool.

"I'm the godfather's favorite nephew, you know," protested Arson as Will snapped a neutralizing bracelet around his wrist before he could power up. "The family will avenge me!"

"I doubt it," replied Warren coldly. "The Battle boys usually hunt in packs, but you're working alone, which suggests to me this wasn't a sanctioned operation, now was it?"

The younger pyro looked a bit unsure. "Well, maybe not _exactly_, but that's only because they didn't believe it would work so they wouldn't give me a proper go-ahead."

"They might have had a point, you know."

"Sorry you lost your chance to prove yourself," put in Will cheerfully. "No hard feelings, huh?"

* * *

While they were busy, Layla went over to the van and climbed in the back with Maj. Her normally non-tactile friend gave her a quick hug, which suggested she had been quite concerned about her.

"What's with Warren?" Layla asked after she switched off her comm equipment, "It's like he's mad at me or something."

Magenta just looked at her for a moment. "He was very worried about you, Layla. And you gotta admit, that was some pretty forfeit-worthy stuff you did up there. You should have seen the look on his face when you told Will to bring the chopper down."

"What was I supposed to do? Just sit there like a good little girl while a bunch of the City's worst criminals are set free?"

Maj didn't really have an answer for that.

* * *

Nor did Will when she put the same question to him and Warren later when the three of them were discussing the whole issue in the privacy of their headquarters.

Warren got to his feet and stalked to the window with his back to the other two on the couch, and snarled something in Chinese that Will was rather glad he didn't understand. Not that Will blamed him for being extremely tense, considering the danger Layla had been in, but he had been concerned at the time that the pyro's feelings for her were clouding his judgment. Maybe this wasn't really Guardians business; maybe the two of them needed to sort this one out themselves.

He got up. "Warren, Layla, I think you guys have some things to discuss. So, I'm going to leave you to it."

She watched him go and then turned to Warren, who didn't look at her, and typically didn't say anything either. The silent animosity was starting to get to her.

"What is your problem, Warren?"

"What do you _think_ my problem is?"

"Look, I know you were worried about me this evening, but I did what I had to do. I know I took some risks, but I really believe they were all necessary."

"Really?" he challenged, turning around to face her. "How about your last little stunt, taking him on like that when you knew we were right there. We would have had him in a few moments, especially after you anchored the chopper on the ground."

"I didn't know that for sure, and neither do you. He could still have escaped," she countered, and then sighed. "You need to let go of this hero complex of yours, at least as far as it concerns me. I don't need you rescuing me the whole time, Warren. I'm not some damsel in distress."

"No, you're not. Instead you went looking for a damn fire-breathing dragon – literally – which you didn't actually need to rescue yourself from because backup was about two seconds away!"

She tried to stay calm. "You're overreacting."

"Am I?"

"It's the risk we take every day. It's what we do, Warren. I mean, that's why they call us heroes, right? Or do I need to remind you of everyone's favorite quote from Peter Parker's uncle?"

"Which one?" he snapped sarcastically, his temper really beginning to flare now. "Oh, you must mean 'With great power comes great responsibility'. Newsflash, Hippie: that responsibility extends to yourself too, you know."

"I know, I know, if I'm dead I'll never be able to use my 'great power' to save anybody again," she replied matter-of-factly.

"You don't need to be so callous about it."

"I'm not, I'm being practical."

"Oh, so _now_ you start getting practical?! Let's try to remember that there are some people who don't want to lose you!"

"This isn't about _you_!"

That accusation was the final straw for Warren's temper. Before he realized it, he had his arms crossed across his chest, about to power up in his anger.

Layla looked at him in shock. Seeing her mouth his name brought him back to his senses and the moment of mindless rage passed. He dropped his hands and took a number of deep breaths, clenching and unclenching his fists.

"Actually," he said in a halfway calm voice, although his chest was still heaving, "I was thinking of all of us, and your parents too."

With that he grabbed his leather jacket and left.

Layla collapsed onto the couch and whatever anger she had left dissolved into sobs. They'd had their arguments before; it was to be expected with two people so different and so strong-willed. But this was something else entirely. And he'd never come so close to actually attacking her.

What would the others think if they heard about this? Would they think he was dark side after all?

She looked up and wiped the tears from her face as she realized the full significance of what had just happened. Yes, he'd been more furious than she had ever seen him and he'd very almost powered up … but he didn't follow through with it. Something had kept him from going over the edge.

Something that made him more hero than villain.

* * *

Warren stood on his balcony and gazed up at the stars. A light breeze ruffled his long hair which still damp from the cold shower he'd just taken, desperately needing to cool off physically as well as figuratively. He took a sip from his glass of cold water and wished briefly that he still lived above the Paper Lantern because he could've really used some good advice from Mrs. Wu.

Was Layla right about him? _Did_ he have a hero complex, desperate to protect and save her at every turn, as if she was too weak to take care of herself? Looking back at his behavior that evening during the hostage situation, he had to admit she might have a point.

And yet that wasn't as bad as her last accusation. Was there also some truth in that? Had he been more concerned for _her_, or for how much it would hurt _him_ to lose her?

He sighed. He hoped not, but that was probably something only time would tell for sure.

In the meantime, he owed her a huge apology for losing his temper. He cringed at the memory he'd been trying to avoid for the past hour. Warren couldn't believe he'd come so close to losing control, to hurting someone he loved. He wasn't sure what this meant for their future together, but he was pretty sure it wasn't good.

For the moment, however, he really needed to make that apology. He took out his cell phone.

* * *

Layla hadn't been sure what to expect when she got a text message from Warren asking her to meet him in the park, but it wasn't this. He was sitting on their usual bench with his elbows on his knees and his head in his hands.

"Hey," she said.

He flicked his slightly damp hair back and looked up at her. "Hey." She sat down a little hesitantly. "Thanks for coming."

She smiled slightly, and waited for him to go on.

He took a deep breath. "I know it's not enough, but I just wanted to say I'm sorry I overreacted. And I'm really, really sorry I got so angry with you."

No, this definitely wasn't what she expected. "It's okay."

"It's not," he replied. "I could have really hurt you."

"But you didn't; that's what really matters." He raised his eyebrows slightly at that and she went on. "Look, I don't blame you for being mad at me. I admit it, I was pretty reckless."

"Yeah, but I can understand why you did what you did. And I know I can't protect you from every villain and monster, not that you need it 'cos you're quite capable of looking after yourself." He sighed and ran his hands through his hair. "Anyhow, the main thing is, I wanted to apologize for losing my temper."

"_Almost_ losing your temper," she corrected.

"Close enough."

"No, and that's what I was just trying to get at." She had to get him to see the significance. "You were more angry than I've ever seen you – and I've seen you get mad a few times – but you didn't actually power up. You stopped yourself in time."

"I was so close," he answered in a small sad voice.

"But you didn't."

"Maybe next time I will," he pointed out, refusing to be comforted. "I'm not willing to take that chance."

Layla gave a little smile and said simply, "I am."

Warren shook his head slightly and said nothing. She shifted closer to him on the bench and laid her head on his shoulder. He wrapped his arms gently around her and rested his chin on the top of her head. Looking up at the stars for the second time that evening, he told himself to enjoy having her in his arms while it lasted because it would be coming to an end soon. Somehow, he would have to convince her that for her own safety they needed to break up.

"Warren?"

"Mmm?"

"Will you marry me?"


	5. Chapter 4: Inlaws and Outlaws

_**Disclaimer:** I do not own Sky High or its characters, settings etc, all of which belong to Disney. Adamantium belongs to Marvel Comics._

**Chapter 4: In-laws & Outlaws**

Warren froze for a long moment, looking down at her snuggled against his shoulder, and then he said carefully, "Run that by me again?"

"Warren, will you marry me?" repeated Layla, pulling away a bit to look up at him.

He frowned slightly and stood up from the park bench. He looked down at her. "Could you explain to me how we got from Maybe-next-time-I'll-hurt-you to Warren-will-you-marry-me, 'cos I think I've missed a couple of episodes."

"Just answer the question, please."

"No."

"No, you won't answer the question, or no, you won't marry me?"

"No, I won't answer the question," he replied slowly, "At least, not yet."

He was having that awful sinking feeling that he was fast losing his grip on the conversation. It reminded him of that day when Layla and company had besieged his lunch table, refused to be appropriately scared of him and completely re-arranged his social life. Actually, that occasion seemed quite minor compared to how far out of his depth he was feeling right now.

"Why not?" she asked.

"First you need to explain your little leap in logic."

Layla smiled slightly and looked up at him with her most determined expression. "Okay, it's like this: You were really mad at me, but you stopped yourself before you hurt me. It's like it was the ultimate test of your self control, and you passed the test."

"Only just. And one moment of success doesn't guarantee that next time I won't lose it." She opened her mouth to respond to that, but he held up a hand to stop her from interrupting. "Are you really sure you want to stake your happiness on a risk like that?"

"Yes," she replied firmly. "It's the same chance anybody takes when they get married."

Warren sighed and sat down again. "Not quite. For most people it's not quite such a Safety and Health hazard."

"Some people choose to live near active volcanoes, earthquake fault lines and in hurricane zones," Layla reasoned.

"Don't you get your daily quota of danger just being a hero?"

"Didn't you just admit that I'm quite capable of looking after myself?" she countered lightly.

"Yeah, but – "

"And," she interrupted, "One of these days I'll be able to grow those fireproof vines I've been working on for so long, and then you'd better watch your back, mister!"

He had to smile. "Okay, this conversation is getting a little out of hand." He stood up. "I think we could both use a good night's sleep and some time to think about this seriously."

Layla also got to her feet, trying not to be too disappointed. "Sure. Meet you here tomorrow before work?"

Warren nodded and she gave him a quick hug before turning away quickly.

"Layla," he called after her. She stopped, not turning around. "Just because I didn't say 'yes', it doesn't mean I said 'no'."

Her shoulders lifted, but she said nothing as she walked away.

* * *

Although it had been his own suggestion, Warren didn't actually get much sleep that night. Staring up at the dark ceiling, he couldn't help being astounded at the evening's strange turn of events. 

Layla had certainly thrown him for a loop. There he was, psyching himself up to let her go forever in order to keep her safe, meanwhile she had every intention of walking right up to the jaws of death and inviting the monster in question home to have dinner, pardon the pun. Being reckless about her own safety seemed to be a recurring pattern for Layla that day.

On the other hand, if she wasn't scared of him – and she was the one who had every right to be – why should he be?

* * *

Layla was there and waiting for him the next morning. He wondered how long she had been sitting on that bench, trying to guess what his response was going to be. 

"I stopped off at Starbucks," he said by way of greeting and handed her a cup of her usual order, cinnamon spice herbal tea. She smiled a little and took a sip. "I ran into Stronghold there, and he asked me to deliver your forfeit."

Layla took the envelope he held out and put it into her purse with no more than a glance. He sat down next to her, looking a bit uncertain.

"So, um, did you get a good night's sleep, like you planned?" she asked.

"Not really. You?"

She shook her head and ventured anxiously, "And how about the 'serious thinking' part?"

"Got that part right, yeah," he replied, and then lapsed into silence again.

It was worse than pulling teeth. Not that Warren ever spoke that much but this was more difficult than usual, which suggested he might be trying to put off telling her what she didn't want to hear.

"Uh, maybe you should read your forfeit."

Yes, he was definitely stalling. Layla sighed and put her mug down on the bench beside her, deciding to go along with it. She took out the envelope, opened it and unfolded the piece of paper inside.

This couldn't possibly be her forfeit.

Or if it was, it was certainly not what she would call punishment.

There was one word on the note: _Yes_.

She just stared at it for a few moments in a state of mild shock and then squealed and hugged Warren, who couldn't help chuckling at her reaction.

"You really had me there," she grinned, looking back at the piece of paper. "If only this actually _was_ my forfeit. So, you didn't really run into Will, did you?"

He shrugged. "Haven't seen him since last night. He probably thinks we're still fighting."

"Well, this might come as a bit of a shock," she answered and hugged him again hard, "To all of them, actually."

"Before you get too excited," he said when she finally let him go, "I should point out that I won't be able to afford much of an engagement ring for you, as you probably already know."

"I know," Layla replied lightly. "But it doesn't matter because I don't want a ring anyway. It's a totally sexist custom, you know."

He frowned a little. "Are you sure you're not just saying that to make me feel better?"

"No, I wouldn't do that. I really mean it. If I wanted something you can't afford, I'd say so." He didn't look convinced, so she went on, "Like, for instance, I really would like wedding rings made from Adamantium, because it's indestructible and I like the symbolism of that for marriage. But I know it's not practically possible."

"Yeah, it's not like there's a supplier anywhere near Maxville," commented Warren dryly.

"Anyhow, I know it's not going to happen, and that's fine with me. So there you are: I've told you what I'd like in a dream world, but I know I won't get it and I'm perfectly okay with that. In the same way, I'm telling you I don't want an engagement ring and I mean it. Do you realize how much sexism and gender discrimination there are in wedding traditions?"

Warren cut in before she could really get going. "Yeah, if anything _you_ should be giving _me_ a ring, considering you're the one who proposed," he teased.

Layla picked up his tone and carried on with the joke. "Why, you're quite right, dear." He raised his eyebrows slightly at being called 'dear', but she continued in the same mischievous vein. "In fact I think I'm going to give you one of mine." With that she took off the ring she often wore in the ring finger of her right hand.

Warren played along with a dose of sarcasm. "Your favorite ring, I'm so touched." It was a Russian wedding ring, made up of three linked rings. He'd given it to her years ago, long before they'd even started dating, simply because she really liked the design.

Layla took her alarm button pendant off its imitation leather necklace and slid her ring onto it before placing the necklace around his neck, while he watched all of this with a sardonically amused expression. As she tucked her ring inside his shirt she couldn't help it, and started giggling. "This is getting a bit too embarrassingly sweet for you, isn't it?"

Warren cleared his throat. "Yeah, but because I'm such a nice guy, I'll let you get away with it. But only for today." She giggled some more as he went on dryly, "I'm going need some serious therapy after this, you know. It took me three weeks to get over it that time you called me 'cutie'."

* * *

The fire at the pharmaceutical laboratory was almost under control when it flared up again. 

Warren took off his helmet and tiredly ran a hand through his hair as he made his way over to a young woman who was arguing with some of the other firefighters just outside the building. The people had all been evacuated by now, although this lady didn't seem to appreciate the rescue all that much.

He sighed. He was too tired for this. That was what he got for spending the night doing more of the 'serious thinking' part than the sleeping part. Although the result had been worth it, he thought with a slight smile. Layla was floating on air, and he couldn't wait to see Stronghold's face when he heard the news…

"Warren Peace!" The argumentative woman seemed to recognize him as he got closer, and come to think of it, she did look familiar. "I'm Denise Walker. We were at school together, remember? But you know me by a different name."

He frowned slightly, vaguely recalling that she had been a sidekick a year younger than him.

"Do you know her, Peace?" asked one of the firefighters.

"Yeah, I'll handle this," Warren replied, and the other firemen all left to take care of the rekindled fire.

As soon as they were out of earshot, Denise turned to him urgently. "I need to get to my office, but they won't let me. There's some Durosium there that I desperately need to transmutate back to its original substance before the fire gets to it."

"Transmutate?" He realized who she was. "You must be the Alchemistress."

"Nice to meet you," she replied with a touch of sarcasm. "Now that we're introduced, could you please use your powers and escort me safely to my office so that I can use mine?"

After a careful check that the coast was clear, Warren handed her his helmet and Nomex firefighting jacket – even with his powers, he couldn't protect her from everything – and they set off towards her office.

"So, tell me about this stuff we're going to rescue," he asked as they reached a junction in the corridor. "Which way?"

She pointed down one of the passages. "It's a very strong metal alloy that I discovered I can transmutate from steel and then use in the neutralization bracelets, among other items requiring tensile – "

He cut her off. "Why's it so dangerous?"

"The problem is, in its current state, the chemical structure of Durosium requires a stable temperature below – "

Warren interrupted again. "Uh, English, please." He had never been one for matchmaking, especially not during a crisis, but he knew straight away this girl would be perfect for Ethan. As it was the geek was dying to meet her just because of what he knew of her powers. Put the two of them in the same room and no one else would be able to get a word in edgewise between the technobabble.

Denise tried again. "Okay, you've heard of Adamantium, right?"

He nodded and thought, yeah, quite recently actually.

"This is almost as indestructible, and in its raw state it needs to be kept below 50 degrees, because when it gets heated and then sets, it stays like that forever. In addition, raw Durosium is extremely explosive." She pointed. "And we need to go through that door."

There was no way to tell if the fire had reached the other side of the door. Warren wished he had the ability to sense fire like his mom had been able to. He would just have to chance it; after all, they'd been lucky so far.

While Denise stood back a safe distance, Warren threw open the door and quickly absorbed all of the fire in the stairwell. Fortunately, the flames were still quite small. He had once discovered the hard way that there was a limit to how much fire he was able to absorb before he overheated.

He went up the stairs to the floor she'd instructed and found that it was safe, so she quickly joined him.

"So if the fire gets to it before we do, we're looking at, what, vaporizing Maxville?" he asked, continuing their earlier conversation.

"If it explodes," she replied, "Most of the city and its inhabitants will be coated in finely powdered Durosium. Think Pompeii, with superglue added."

Warren swore in Chinese.

"Exactly," agreed Denise and, seeing his double-take, added quickly, "Whatever that means."

"Why did you leave it in your office if it's so dangerous?"

She answered, "Not willingly. I wasn't anywhere near my office at the time of the evac order, and you can ask your colleagues, I was kicking and screaming the whole way." They arrived at an open door. "Here we are."

Denise went behind her desk and unlocked a filing cabinet. She moved aside a few files to reveal a small cooler box, which she took out and placed on her desk. Inside were three small ingots of a silvery metal that looked like platinum. She put them on her desk and passed her hand over them, transmutating the Durosium back into ordinary steel.

"There. We're safe now." She gave a sigh of relief.

Warren, however, knew it wasn't over yet. There was still the common everyday danger of being inside a burning laboratory.

"We'd better get out of here," he said. If any of the other firefighters found out about this, he would get his backside kicked. It would be quite tricky explaining this little stunt to the powers that be.

"What were you doing with that kind of stuff in a civilian lab anyway?" he asked when they were almost out of the building.

Denise looked a bit embarrassed. "Um, well, you know how some people take work home? I just took it between jobs." She sighed. "Actually, I'm likely to be in a lot of trouble with the National Council of Superheroes for this, which I deserve, but it would have been a lot worse if you hadn't helped me. So I guess I owe you one." Warren just shrugged it off, like usual. "If I had a sister I'd offer to set you up with her or something."

Warren smiled and indicated Layla's ring around his neck. "I'm doing just fine in that department, thanks."

By now they had reached the outside of the building. "Is it serious?" asked Denise, giving him his jacket and helmet back before anyone could see she had them and start asking awkward questions.

He nodded, and couldn't help grinning.

"Like wedding bells?" she teased, and he nodded again, feeling a bit shy. "Well, I don't think many kitchen appliances usually come in Durosium, but I can make an exception in your case. How about a really original wedding gift?"

Warren was still fiddling with Layla's ring. "How about something smaller?"

* * *

Layla was ecstatic when she saw the Durosium wedding rings, the others were ecstatic when they found out Warren and Layla were engaged, and Ethan was ecstatic when Warren gave him the Alchemistress's phone number. 

Layla's parents took the news very well too. After a whole lot of excited squealing, hugging and handshaking, the first thing they did was invite the Strongholds around from next door to celebrate by poring over old photo albums (_'Oh, she's grown up so fast!'_).

Choosing a date for a wedding is always quite difficult for superheroes, because you can never guarantee that any particular day would be safe from rampaging monsters, power-hungry villains or natural disasters. Their options were narrowed down a bit by the fact that Layla was determined to have an April wedding because of all the new leaves and blossoms, even though she could easily make spring flowers at any time of year.

Another complication was her father's family in Chicago. They were civilians and so of course they knew nothing about what Layla and her friends _really_ did for a living. There wasn't a lot of interaction between the families, and her aunt had only met Warren once (long enough to take an instant disliking to him, and the feeling was mutual), but Mr. Williams was afraid of repercussions for years to come if his sister was not invited to his daughter's wedding.

Layla didn't see his point in the slightest.

"I don't see why we should have to invite them, just because he's afraid of his big sister moaning!" she complained as she grew some undergrowth for the trees she'd just planted. "I mean, we're inviting my Aunt Lily, but that's because I work for her."

"Yeah, it's not like we're inviting _my_ relatives, for obvious reasons," commented Warren dryly as he walked beside her and tried to mind out for vines hanging from the trees while not crushing the new undergrowth too much. They were in the Amazon basin for one of her tree-planting missions, which turned out to be a nice and private place for her to vent her frustration.

Layla paused in her botanical efforts as a thought suddenly occurred to her that there was something she'd never asked about. "What about on your mom's side?"

"She had a sister, but my aunt and her family died soon after my father was arrested," he replied, running a hand through his hair. This was not his favorite climate, even though he was generally more keen on excess heat than extreme cold.

Layla winced in sympathy, thinking that must have been really horrible for his mom, losing her sister so soon after being betrayed by her husband.

Warren could practically see the thoughts running through her head. "I expect you'll be wanting to keep your own surname, like my mom did," he said, trying to change the subject.

"Yeah, yeah, of course," she answered vaguely, still a little distracted.

He stopped walking and turned her to face him with a gentle hand on her shoulder. "Layla, it was a long time ago. There's no point in being unhappy about it now."

"I just feel bad that I've never even thought to ask about your Peace relatives."

"Don't." He leant down to give her a kiss when her cell phone rang. They shared a good-natured sigh and a smile. So much for privacy in the wilds of South America.

She looked at the caller ID. "It's Will."

"He probably wants to know where the van is."

She smiled. "Yeah, we'd better take it back before it turns into a pumpkin."

* * *

In the end, Layla had her way, and she got the small, intimate wedding she wanted. It was a garden wedding, of course, about ten miles out of town, and everyone who was there was someone special to the bride and groom. 

She had her friends dressed in their signature colors – Will, the best man, wore royal blue, while Ethan and Zach were in orange and white respectively. Magenta's dress was purple and Kate, who was taking the photographs, was in a dark red. Warren was dressed in black with a red tie, and Layla had plaited his hair like the elves in Lord of the Rings.

As for the bride herself, she had her hair curled and piled on top of her head with a few loose tendrils, and she was barefoot. In her pixie-like dress made from a shimmery material in various shades of green, she looked every inch the woodland nymph she'd chosen as her alter ego.

Warren and Layla exchanged vows and rings under an ancient oak tree, Layla's personal logo and one of her favorite trees.

Layla sat at the reception, looking around at the most important people in her life as they tucked into their dinner in the dappled evening sunlight. She glanced down at her left hand and smiled at the sight of her wedding ring, which Denise had made in the exact same style as her favorite ring with the three linked bands, and thought that the day had been simply perfect.

Unfortunately, the world often needs saving at the most inconvenient times.

The Commander and Jetstream had to leave early to help out with a tsunami in the Pacific. A few minutes later, Will got a call from his mother. As they were flying over Maxville they couldn't help noticing a rather unseasonal blizzard which was surrounded by a number of rainstorms.

It seemed that Weatherman was back.

Will turned to Warren and Layla. "I'm really sorry, but we'd better go. Hope you guys enjoy the rest of your – "

"Wait a minute," interrupted Layla, "We're coming too." Of course, she didn't want to cut their wedding reception short, but she was sure neither of them could enjoy themselves knowing that their friends might have liked their help and could be in danger. She turned to Warren. "Aren't we?"

Warren looked like he was debating the same issue with himself, not wanting to spoil her special day. And then there was the issue of who they were dealing with here. For a brief moment she wondered if he was going to object to her facing Weatherman again considering what had happened the last time, but then he gave her a little smile.

"Well, what are you waiting for? Let's go get him."


	6. Chapter 5: ColdFire and Phoenix Rising

_**Disclaimer: **I do not own Sky High or its characters, settings etc, all of which belong to Disney. _

**_A/N: If this was a TV series I'd start this 'episode' with a "Previously On" from Phoenix Emergent, from the end of chapter 1 and beginning of chapter 2. So if you haven't read those bits recently, I recommend that you go back and re-read them._**

**Chapter 5: Cold-Fire and Phoenix Rising**

It was a good thing Ethan had been foresighted – or paranoid – enough to get Zach to bring the van to the wedding, complete with all their uniforms and equipment.

Despite the fact that everyone was dressed in fancy clothes, they still managed to gear up in their usual time and they were on their way back to Maxville in the van in a few minutes. Their first problem was how to locate the super villain, considering they didn't have a ransom phone call to trace this time, and the second was how to deal with him without a having repeat of their last experience.

Magenta had a solution for the first one. "Look at how the rainstorms are in a circle around the blizzard," she said, pointing to the weather satellite image on her screen. "He can always be found at the very center of the weather formations he's creating."

"Which is where, exactly?" asked Will.

Maj zoomed in on the image and pointed. "The multi-storey parking garage next to the Max Mall."

"Are you sure it's not the Mall itself?"

"No, this satellite imagery and the calculations are really accurate."

"Wait a minute, who says he's always at the center of the storm?" Ethan wanted to know, sharing a confused glance with the others. They'd all read the file on the weather villain, after all.

"The NCS's private file on him has a lot more info than the one that they distributed, as per usual." Like many top secret government organizations, the National Council of Superheroes operated on a strictly need-to-know basis, which meant that they often withheld information apparently in the interests of national security.

'_Aren't those files, like, über top secret?'_ commented Zach from the cab where he was driving the van.

Magenta just looked smug, an expression that was totally lost on her boyfriend considering he couldn't see her.

"Any other useful information the NCS didn't see fit to share with us?" Kate asked.

Maj looked even more pleased with herself. "Apparently he's mortally terrified of fire."

"Why? He can just extinguish it with a rainstorm," said Ethan.

"Not Sparky's little pets," Warren pointed out, referring to Kate's flame constructs in his usual style. "We found out last time they're waterproof, remember?"

"That might also explain why Weatherman left so suddenly that time, even though he really seemed to have the upper hand," put in Will.

"So basically our plan is to keep Kate warm enough to power up, right?" said Layla.

"I'm also going to need to know exactly where he is in that huge parking garage," the pyro-constructor replied, "It's not like I can use a flame construct to be my virtual 'eyes' to search for him, and it could take hours for the constructs to find him on their own."

"The city could be half destroyed by floods by then so we really don't have that long," Ethan stated.

Warren added, "Plus, if this is going to work, we're gonna need the element of surprise. If he sees a swarm of little fire dragons buzzing around, he might just disappear like he did last time before we can get to him."

"So, there's nothing else for it – we're going to have to go in there and find him." Will looked at each of them in turn, silently urging them to be careful, "Okay people, let's go find a parking space next to the Mall."

* * *

Will, Layla and Warren were cold, wet and tired, but at least they weren't frozen. For some reason, Weatherman had ceased the blizzard as soon as he seemed to realize he had their attention. Instead he appeared to be trying to drown them, and any civilians who happened to be around, with small cloudbursts every minute or so as they searched the parking garage. 

"Okay, next upgrade on the sunglasses, make sure they have windscreen wipers," said Will, trying to wipe his lenses with his gloved hands yet again. It's a little difficult locating super villains – or anyone – when your glasses are wet.

'_Copy, Blue Leader,'_ responded Zach who had evidently been watching too much Star Wars recently. The van was parked on the lowest level of the parking garage. There were 15 storeys in total, seven above ground and the rest underground.

Five levels down from Will, Warren smirked at the conversation he overheard on the comm, and pushed his damp hair out of his eyes with one hand. In the other hand he held his Zippo, ready to light up the moment he saw any sign of his quarry. He'd soon found out it was pointless even trying to continually absorb fire from it, because every time he got hit with the freezing cold rain, any heat he possessed just dissipated. And there wasn't enough fire in a cigarette lighter to raise his temperature enough to power up.

He saw a group of civilians trying to outrun a whirlwind which was fortunately not strong enough to hurt them seriously, just enough to blow them around a bit and lift the girls' skirts, which probably suggested something about Weatherman's sense of humor. It seemed out of character, though, that the villain was more keen on irritating people than seriously threatening them.

Warren went around a corner and a sudden burst of rain knocked him off his feet. Picking himself up with a groan, he muttered a few things that would have caused Layla to string him up in those fire-proof vines she kept trying to grow, if she'd been able to understand Chinese.

'_He's using the security cameras to see where you guys are!'_ realized Magenta, who had tapped into the parking garage's security system in the hope of finding the villain. _'As soon as you appeared on U1-F28 he got you._'

Warren glanced briefly at the nearest surveillance camera out of the corner of his eye. "Great, so can you do something about his all-seeing eye?"

'_Already done it,'_ answered Maj. _'I've jammed his signal so he's completely blind now.'_

"Thanks, R2-D2."

Layla found Weatherman a few moments later. Based on what Magenta had said earlier, she'd searched the exact middle of the top three levels of the parking garage. The weather villain was sitting in his car on the highest level, strategically parked where the driver's seat was hidden from the security cameras. Through his open window, she could see him typing furiously on his laptop, probably trying to find out what had happened to his video signal that Magenta had just scrambled.

Now it was Kate's turn. She threw off the Mylar space blanket from the first aid kit that had been Ethan's idea of making sure she was warm enough to use her powers. Carefully keeping clear of Zach, Maj, Ethan and the equipment, she created a flame construct and gave it instructions where to go and what to do.

The little firey dragon arrived on the top level a minute later, and Layla could see Weatherman was still busy trying to fix his surveillance problems. So it came as quite a shock to him when a burst of fire suddenly flew right through the open window into his car. He screamed, and when he couldn't extinguish it with a miniature rainstorm inside the car, he went into a complete panic.

Layla saw him struggling with the door handle while the construct continued to harass him. He finally managed to get the car door open, and she ducked behind the pillar she was standing next to and slid down to the floor with her back against the concrete. On the security camera footage that Zach had routed to her heads-up display, Layla could see Kate's construct herding the villain towards her pillar. He was trying frantically to freeze it with an ice storm around himself, but it had no effect.

Layla took out a neutralizing bracelet and waited with it ready in her hand. In its 'dormant' state the neutralizer looked like a thin straight strip of silvery metal. As Weatherman neared the pillar, Layla held out the neutralizer horizontally a few inches from the floor, hoping he would be too distracted by the pursuing fire creature to notice. The moment the villain's leg touched the neutralizing bracelet, it automatically wrapped around his ankle and snapped shut. The ice storm around him disappeared.

'_Good job, Dryad, he's neutralized,'_ reported Maj who could see from the satellite photo that the villain's weather formations were evaporating.

Layla left the construct to guard Weatherman, who was screaming even more now that he was entirely unable to defend himself from it. She made her way downstairs to join the others, knowing there wasn't anything else she could do here.

She crossed paths with Will who was going up to take care of the villain. He squeezed her shoulder and grumbled good-naturedly about not being able to fly and needing to take the long way up the stairs. She gave a tired smile which gave way to confusion when it suddenly became clear that their day wasn't over yet.

Pure white flames had appeared in long narrow strips that were winding their way around the parking garage. Some of the fire was quite close to them, but there was no heat coming from it. If anything it seemed to be cold. There was a trail of frost wherever the flames had touched the pillars, instead of the scorch marks they would expect.

The strange walls of fire were all over the parking garage, reaching all the way to the ceiling in most places. On the ground floor, Warren stretched out a cautious hand to the white flame. As soon as he touched it he jerked his hand back with a hiss of pain. He inspected his fingers which had a light dusting of frost on them, and realized that he knew what they were dealing with, something he'd heard of but none of them had ever come across.

He announced grimly, "It's cold-fire."

* * *

There was a chorus of '_What?'_ on the comm. 

Ethan launched into an explanation. "I can't really go into detail right now, but cold-fire has very similar properties to normal fire except that the flames are extremely cold, as the name suggests."

Kate was confused. "I don't understand. White flames are usually the hottest."

"Yes, but super-powers have a tendency to disregard the laws of physics," he replied. "The bottom line is you get severe frostbite if you touch it, only it feels like its burning. It's even worse than dry ice, and it can definitely kill you. The Kevlar won't be able to protect you much either."

Meanwhile Magenta had been searching her database. "Arctic Flame!" she exclaimed as she realized who the most likely culprit was.

'_I thought she was in the Ultra-Max,'_ commented Layla. Like the others, she'd heard of the notorious super-villainess even though she didn't know anything about her powers.

"She got paroled last month," replied Maj, fingers still at work on her keyboard. "They've been keeping really close tabs on her … oh. Until two days ago."

'_I suppose it would have been too embarrassing for them to let us know they'd lost her,'_ Warren put in sarcastically.

"Dude, she's got, like, civilians in her web as well." Zach could see from the surveillance footage that there were walls of cold-fire surrounding citizens in the parking garage and even in the Mall.

Will quickly found out that he couldn't fly yet. His strength couldn't do much damage against fire of any kind unless he could smother it, and a short experiment showed that his invulnerability would only protect him from the cold-fire to a certain extent. Layla, however, was completely vulnerable and it didn't help that the white firewalls kept moving and changing, creating safe passages and then closing them up again.

Kate got out of the van and created a flame construct which she flew towards the nearest cold-fire barrier. When the little fire dragon connected with the white flames it lost its coherent shape and deteriorated into sparks. Kate yelled in pain and collapsed onto the floor, clutching her temples, while the others could have sworn they heard the sound of a woman laughing coming from the white fire.

Ethan helped her up to a sitting position as the pain eased slightly.

"Let me try sending one into the cold-fire on autopilot rather," she whispered between gasping breaths. But she soon found that she couldn't create a construct in her current state, not even a handful of sparks.

Ethan reported this to the others, adding that Kate was otherwise mostly okay.

'_Can any of us even fight her the way we are at the moment?'_ asked Will. He was understandably concerned about his girlfriend, but he forced himself to focus on the bigger problem at hand.

Kate spoke up weakly, "Knight-Fire can still…"

'_No, I can't,'_ replied the pyro. _'My lighter's gone.'_ He realized he must have dropped it the last time Weatherman rained on him.

Magenta looked at the monitor screen that showed their homing beacons. "It's one floor below you, near one of the pillars that reads F28," she told him.

'_Thanks, R2. I'll try to get there.'_

'_If you can,'_ put in Layla, concerned. _'I think she's trying to turn us into lab rats in a maze.'_

* * *

Warren wasn't far from where Maj told him he would find his lighter, but the white firewalls kept changing and trying to force him away from his goal. He was getting annoyed, but he knew better than to let the super villainess know that. There was some compensation in the hope that this little game might go on long enough for him to be able to warm up enough to power up. Not that he was sure what he'd be able to _do_, even if he got his pyrokinetic powers or his lighter back, considering that ordinary fire didn't seem to dent the white flames. Nor was he sure whether he'd be able to absorb the cold-fire even at his normal temperature. 

Suddenly a woman's voice seemed to come out of the fire. "Are you enjoying my labyrinth, Knight-Fire?"

"What do you want?" he asked.

"The criminal underworld has placed a price on your head." Her voice seemed to ripple with the flames, passing along the firewall next to him as he moved.

"And that makes me different from any other hero, how?"

"It's a hell of a price. I could retire on what they're offering."

"Dead-or-alive, huh?"

Her voice sounded amused as he reached another dead end. "Oh, they want you alive, probably so they can have the pleasure of killing you themselves. I don't know what you've been up to the past 10 years I was inside, but you've definitely annoyed the Battle Clan."

"Speaking of you being in jail," Warren replied, "Don't you think this stunt counts as violating your parole?"

"Go ahead, arrest me," mocked the voice. "You don't even know where I am. And we both know you're too cold to use your powers now; that's what I hired Weatherman for."

Warren realized that could explain why Weatherman had stopped the blizzard – he was getting paid to make them cold, not dead.

Arctic Flame continued, "You know, it's a pity you didn't inherit anything from poor dear Zoë – I expect that's because her powers were too similar to your father's. Just think, if I'd been your mother, you probably would have inherited my powers as well. And you wouldn't be powerless now."

'_Whoa, scary thought, dude. She was into Warren's father!'_ said Zach before Maj could stop him.

Warren replied with a calmness he certainly didn't feel, "If you'd been my mother I think I'd be my own worst enemy."

"Your powers would have found a way to co-exist."

'_Your lighter should be about three feet ahead of you,'_ directed Magenta and a moment later he spotted it.

"I wasn't just talking about whose powers I'd have inherited," he said, picking up his Zippo and checking that it still worked.

The white flames around him flared. "Watch yourself, Knight-Fire. There are a lot of so-called innocent citizens that will pay for your insolence."

Now that he had his lighter back, all he needed was a target.

Ethan seemed to be thinking along similar lines. _'You won't be able to fight the cold-fire itself,'_ he advised, _'You need to get her to show herself.'_

Easier said then done, Popsicle, thought Warren, and he decided to try the oldest trick in the book for dealing with ego-driven super villains (apart from tricking them into monologuing, that is).

"Threatening hostages, huh?" he goaded her, flicking his lighter and absorbing the fire into the other hand. "That's a really cowardly way of dealing with your problems."

'_Knight-Fire?'_ Layla tried to caution him but he ignored her.

"Show yourself, Arctic Flame," he challenged. "Or are you scared of me?"

A figure stepped out of the white flames just ahead of him. For someone who was apparently the age of his parents, she looked remarkably ageless in her long white robe. Her flawless skin and hair, and even her lips, were pure white, while her eyes were pitch black and they were glaring at him.

"How dare you suggest I would be scared of someone completely defenseless?" she spoke with cold condescension. "As if you could warm up enough from that little lighter to get your powers back!"

In response Warren threw a handful of absorbed fire at her to show just how 'defenseless' he really was. The fireball wasn't anywhere nearly as big or powerful as when he was able to create the fire himself, but it was enough to char a black mark on her shoulder and make her stagger back. She was also caught completely off-guard, so he was able to follow up with another shot to her arm before she managed to recover enough to raise a defensive wall of cold-fire.

"Hiding behind your powers again?" he taunted her, wondering how much damage he'd been able to do. Maybe, rather than attacking her, he should have tried to get close enough to cuff her with a neutralizer. Then again, she definitely wouldn't have let him get anywhere near her, even if she thought he had no powers.

Another cold-fire wall sprang up suddenly underneath his feet, throwing him a few feet up and sideways. He landed hard and the lighter went flying out of his fingers. He scrambled after it but a wall of cold-fire cut him off and he jerked his hand back from it quickly.

Warren got to his feet and turned around to face Arctic Flame who had dropped the cold-fire barrier between them. She didn't seem to be in any sort of pain, and the only evidence of his attack were two black blotches on her white robe.

"Before I turn you over to a slow and painful death, I want you to witness the depth of your failure as a so-called Guardian of this city. You will rue the day you chose to turn your back on your family and your true calling. Those people you are sworn to protect will all know you were responsible for this, and without even trying you will have accomplished the deaths of as many citizens as any super villain, more successful in that regard than your own father."

Having delivered her super villain speech as required by tradition, she raised her hands with a cold triumphant smile and he could hear the sounds of screaming people in the distance.

'_Man, she's sweeping the cold-fire away from us … into the Mall where all the people are,' _reported Zach in a worried voice.

'_There're also firewalls outside the Mall,' _added Maj, equally concerned, _'Moving towards the crowds of onlookers.'_

Arctic Flame's smile became even more evil as she saw Warren's disturbed reaction. "You will remember this for the rest of your life, hero," she smirked, "However long _that_ might be."

Desperately trying to do something, _anything,_ to halt the tide, Warren flung out his hands to either side, palms facing outwards towards the walls of white flames. The villainess started slightly as Warren briefly gained control of the cold-fire wall which had remained around the two of them. She took control of the flames back from him a second later, but for that short moment he knew he had touched the fire with his mind.

She shook her head with a condescending expression. "You won't be able to stop me. You cannot control other people's fire properly and you know it."

Warren didn't dignify that with a response, knowing she was just trying to cover her own growing apprehension. Closing his eyes in intense concentration, he crossed his arms across his chest and with a roar he powered up, palms outwards. This time he could feel the cold-fire, all of it, all throughout the Mall and even the firewalls that were outside.

He opened his eyes slowly, triumphantly, to see Arctic Flame with her hands pressed to her temples, cringing with pain. A moment later she gave up and relinquished control of her flames.

Now he had absolute command of the cold-fire. It was all available to do his bidding; it would move, flare or extinguish at his beck and call. This was what pyro-psionics was actually all about. What they (and the textbooks) had assumed all along was incorrect – being able to absorb and use fire was nothing on this. This was something else entirely. Now he truly had his mother's power, possibly even stronger than she had been.

For a moment he just stood there, indulging in the feeling of having so much power at his fingertips and ignoring the growing headache that was trying to get his attention. He was vaguely aware of Zach asking '_Are you guys seeing this?'_ over the comm but he disregarded that too and focused on simply enjoying having all the fire at his disposal.

He smirked at Arctic Flame, but to his surprise she didn't look afraid of him, as she should be. Instead she was smiling and there was something in her expression that actually seemed to be trying to encourage him. Why would she be so friendly towards him when he was about to defeat her? Couldn't she see how much he was reveling in taking control of her fire? Unless … unless she _could_ see … and she was hoping that having all this power would –

"Why do you limit yourself as a law-abiding hero when you could be free to choose your own destiny?" her tone was almost musical now, "No one can stop you. They're weak and pathetic, nowhere near your level."

'_Warren?'_ Layla's uncertain voice over the comm snapped him back to reality.

He narrowed his eyes at the super villainess. Slowly and deliberately he closed his hands into fists, extinguishing the cold-fire all at once.

Now Arctic Flame looked terrified, and she ran for it. Warren tried to give chase but the act of extinguishing the firewalls had compounded his headache to almost a debilitating level and he sank to his knees.

'_She's gonna get away!_' exclaimed Ethan.

'_I'm on my way,'_ replied Will, who unfortunately was still too cold to fly, _'I'm only two floors above her.'_

'_You won't get there in time, Eagle,'_ Zach answered, _'She's on the same level as the exit already.'_

Warren pressed his hands to his temples and squeezed his eyes shut, but it didn't help the pain at all. He opened his eyes and spotted the lighter on the ground near where he was kneeling. With a certain amount of difficulty he picked it up, although he wasn't sure what he was going to do with it.

'_Can't Flame-Archer send a – '_ started Layla.

Kate cut her off._ 'No, I already tried, but I can't create one yet. Sorry, Dryad.'_

Still not entirely certain he knew what he was doing, Warren flicked the lighter and absorbed a handful of fire. He opened his hand and released a small cloud of sparks that coalesced into a flame construct … shaped like a phoenix. He stared at it for a moment, mildly surprised that it had actually worked, and then he pulled himself together and sent the construct after Arctic Flame.

He sat back in exhaustion and rested his head on his knees, closing his eyes to listen to the others' commentary of what was taking place on the next level of the parking garage. From what he could tell, his construct had stopped the villainess from escaping and Will was almost there to apprehend her.

Fortunately Arctic Flame wasn't trying to defend herself from either the construct or Will with her powers – she was probably convinced that Warren would simply quench any cold-fire she created. Little did she know he was as washed-out as Kate now, and just to add to his headache, he was starting to get a painful sensation on the skin of his chest. It was that awful feeling of getting burnt, which he had felt only twice before in his life…

Warren opened his eyes and glanced up at his hair which had fallen over his eyes, watching as a lock at the middle turned red. He unzipped the top of his Kevlar catsuit and it all made sense when he saw the tattoo that was forming across his chest.

His last thought before he passed out was that Ethan was going to be thrilled…

* * *

'_Man down,'_ reported Zach from the security cameras. 

With both Weatherman and Arctic Flame safely neutralized, Warren was their next concern. Will and Layla made their way quickly to the next level, and Ethan headed there too, guessing their friend would be in need of medical attention.

Layla and Will got there first, and they ran over to where Warren was lying, unconscious and looking very pale but his pulse and breathing were stable.

"Warren?" she tried to rouse him, and ran her fingers through his hair. With amazement she touched the new red streak in his hair which was right at his center parting and shared a glance with Will, and then realized she shouldn't be so surprised considering what she'd just seen him do via the security camera.

Ethan arrived at a run just as Layla noticed Warren's unzipped catsuit. As the other two watched, she pulled his uniform slightly open and…

Oh. Wow.

There was no mistaking the new tattoo across Warren's chest. Magnificent in red and yellow, a phoenix rose triumphantly from orange flames just below his sternum, spreading its wings in fiery tendrils across his pectoral muscles.

For a moment, none of them said anything.

Then Ethan spoke up.

"Guys, I've been telling you all along he's a fire elemental!"

* * *

_**A/N:** Sorry you all had to wait so long for this update – hope it was worth the wait! Unfortunately that's how it's going to be for the next little while. Thanks for all the reviews and PMs and for your continued support for my story._


	7. Chapter 6: Wildfire

_**Disclaimer: **I do not own Sky High or its characters, settings etc, all of which belong to Disney. _

**Chapter 6: Wildfire**

_Excerpt from '__An Overview of the Physiology of the Fire Elemental: An Introduction'_

_By Dr. Ethan Franklin, PhD_

_The Fire Elemental has complete control over all fire in their vicinity regardless of the source, which entails possession of all of the fire-based powers, viz:_

_1. Pyrokinesis – the ability to create fire internally and control it to a limited extent._

_2. Pyro-psionics – the ability to control fire created externally to an exceptional extent, also including with the ability to sense the presence of fire._

_3. Pyro-absorption – the ability to absorb fire created externally and use this fire in a pyrokinetic manner. This ability has been falsely labeled as an extension of pyro-psionics in super-medical literature to date. This paper aims to prove, _inter alia_, using current research on the only known fire elemental in existence, that pyro-absorption is a separate power worthy of individual recognition._

_4. Pyro-construction – the ability to create and control flame constructs._

* * *

He stood on the top of the tall building that used to be their headquarters and looked down on the city as it burned, a pair of fiery phoenixes circling around him. 

Arctic Flame had been right.

He'd known it at the time, actually, but he'd tried to bury the feeling under his sense of morality and his affection for his so-called teammates.

But they weren't really on the same team, were they? They were like a small town Little League while he was a Major League star. And Arctic Flame had recognized that. Quite the evil genius, that woman, and quite useful after he'd broken her out of the Ultra-Max.

Or at least, she had been. Before he neutralized her and then burnt her with her own fire and left her in his smoldering wake.

That should have been sufficient warning not to cross him, but those little fools still tried to change him, turn him back to their goody-goody side. But, against the power he wielded, they had no chance.

He roasted the guinea pig, flambéed the human lighthouse and boiled the puddle geek. His former best friend was more difficult, courtesy of his invulnerability, so instead he exploited his weakness for his girlfriend. After all, she was on his to-do list too.

Silly girl, trying to sneak up on him with a flame construct while she directed its course from a safe distance, watching through binoculars. In moments he had her fire creature in his psionic grip, preventing her from letting go her control of it, and there was no distance 'safe' enough. Slowly, agonizingly, he crushed her construct, leaving her mindless.

That pretty much took care of her boyfriend too. Emotional wimp.

As for the 'greatest superheroes on the planet', they who had been responsible for his father's downfall, they couldn't even give him a flesh wound. Eventually, when the two heroes were completely exhausted, he neutralized them and slow-roasted the woman in front of her beloved, once again killing two birds with one stone.

He left the best for last. That trusting little girl who thought she could still find good in him. He took her to the rainforest she loved so much and with twisted glee he watched her sob and beg for mercy as her precious trees were reduced to ashes around her in huge stretches of fiery destruction …

* * *

Layla woke up in the middle of the night, alone and cold. 

That was definitely odd, considering she was usually snuggled up with her human hot water bottle. They'd only been married for three months, but it was funny how quickly she'd gotten used to the warmth of sharing a bed, especially with someone who had such a high temperature.

Shivering a little, she pulled on her robe and walked through to the living room where Warren was sitting at the table with his head in his hands. A small flame construct was flitting around the room near the ceiling looking like it didn't know what to do, which was more a reflection of Warren's state of mind than any sign of sentience.

Pyro-construction was definitely his favorite of his new powers, and not only because it didn't give him a headache like pyro-psionics tended to. He would often have a fiery phoenix hovering around the room just for the fun of it. The novelty would probably wear off soon enough, but she reckoned he deserved to show off a bit after the struggle he'd had learning to use that new power.

It had come as quite a surprise all round when Warren found that without the desperation and adrenaline involved in his first construct, pyro-construction was actually quite difficult. Layla had reflected privately that it was kind of nice for Kate to be the one to teach Warren something for a change, considering she had always been in the shadow of him and Will.

Layla sat down next to him, not sure what to say considering 'Can't sleep?' seemed a bit obvious.

"Sorry I woke you," he mumbled.

She asked gently, "Bad dream?"

"You have no idea."

"So give me one."

Warren sighed and, without looking at her, replied in a monotone. "Went dark side, killed my friends in the nastiest ways possible, burnt your rainforest to the ground."

Layla managed to stop herself from flinching automatically at the last bit because that would only make him feel worse. "It was just a dream, probably a side effect of Ethan's latest super-Tylenol experiment," she reasoned. Ethan had been working on a cure for Warren's pyro-psionic headaches. "It doesn't mean anything."

"I know." He glanced at her briefly and then looked away again. He seemed to suddenly notice the flickering shadows that his construct was causing, and dispersed the phoenix into a small shower of sparks with a flick of his fingers.

Focusing on his hands on the table, he said quietly, "What scares me is that it's possible."

She answered carefully, "Theoretically, it's possible that any of us could turn evil." He looked up and gave her a disbelieving look. She continued, "Look, Will could become an egomaniac psycho, I could turn into Poison Ivy, Ethan could change into a mad evil genius."

He snorted at those suggestions.

"Well, that's about as likely as _you_ going evil. I mean, you had your chance there with Arctic Flame, and you resisted." He started to respond to that but she cut him off. "And don't think I don't know how much of an ego-trip using your powers can be."

He gave her a searching look. "Do you really?"

"Maybe not to the extent that you do, but I think I have a bit of an idea how you felt." It was her turn to gaze into space as she spoke. "Sometimes, like when I'm in a big park or a forest, and I reach out with my powers and I can feel all of the trees and plants and grass up to the edge of my range. And they're all there waiting for my command; they'd do whatever I asked, even if it was something horrible, and it feels … good, knowing that I can get them to do anything I want."

She looked at him. "Am I close?" Warren stared at her for a long moment and then nodded, and she finally asked the question she'd wanted to for the past three months. "So what stopped you?"

"You, when you said my name. And knowing the others were there too. I just couldn't go through with it."

"That's sweet, Warren, but I don't think we had that much to do with it, apart from maybe interrupting her little monologue." She took his hand and threaded her fingers through his. "I think you did that on your own."

He looked at her intently. "You have far too much faith in me."

Layla smiled sadly. "You have far too little."

* * *

Despite Layla's reassurances, it took Warren a long time to fall asleep again. He couldn't help wondering if he wasn't too powerful for his own good, even though he had to admit his new powers had come in handy quite often. 

Of course, every superhero went through times when they were faced the temptation to use their powers for their own gain. Still, he never would have thought that Layla of all people would struggle with that in the same way he did. And even though he considered her a bit idealistic at times (usually the times when she was calling him totally cynical), it meant a lot to him that she trusted him so completely.

He could only hope he would be able live up to her faith.

* * *

As soon as the fire truck pulled up outside Maxville High, Warren knew this was no ordinary fire. For one thing, your average school lab accident didn't tend to get _this_ far out of control so fast. Perhaps more significantly, the fire felt different somehow, like it was being caused by a pyro. He couldn't explain the feeling; it was just one of those weird things that seemed to be part and parcel of pyro-psionics. 

If this situation involved a pyro, even an underage one, it would probably be an idea to deal with it as his alter ego. Over the years he'd become quite talented at separating from the other firefighters on his team, despite the fact that they all practiced the buddy system, in order to use his powers or switch identities. It seemed that all those Plausible Excuses for Absences During Crises Requiring Superhero Intervention essays they'd had to do for high school English turned out to be far more useful than he'd thought at the time. Warren's approach also involved using the persona he'd cultivated at high school – keeping people a bit scared of him generally kept them from asking too many awkward questions.

Warren reached the science lab long before the rest of the firefighters, and he spotted the perpetrator through the windows. There was no doubt whose offspring he was, and he was facing off with a girl who appeared strangely unafraid of the fire…

* * *

Nicola Cantrell had always had a sneaky feeling that her lab partner, Dorian Battle, knew far too much about her, and about one thing in particular. He'd kept trying to provoke her ever since she started at this school a month ago, as if he was trying to get some sort of … reaction from her. Then today, in science class, her suspicions were confirmed when he casually rolled up his sleeves to reveal red flame tattoos that looked an awful lot like… 

When his hands suddenly burst into flame, her first thoughts of That-is-_not_-natural were closely followed by her second thoughts of And-you're-one-to-talk. Meanwhile the rest of the class scrambled for cover and some of them made it out of the door before a fireball from Dorian started a blaze that effectively blocked their escape. Nicola tried to help, but she couldn't control it properly and she only made the fire worse.

She tried to stand protectively between Dorian and her classmates, although there wasn't much she could do apart from making like some sort of human shield. And with the way the fire was spreading and the speed Dorian was creating more, there wasn't much she could do in terms of shielding either.

"Come on," he taunted her. "Show me what you've got."

At that point every flame in the room, even the fire on Dorian's hands, vanished into wisps of smoke. He stared at her, first in disbelief and then with growing interest.

Nicola shook her head slowly. "I didn't do that."

There was a deep voice from the doorway. "I did."

Dorian glared around at the intruder, a young man wearing a black trench coat and sunglasses, with long dark hair that was slicked back into a ponytail. He was leaning against the door frame with his arms folded in an apparently casual pose.

"Knight-Fire." Nicola heard one of the girls whispering from where they were hiding under the steel lab desks.

"I prefer Eagle," whispered another. "He's much more of a proper superhero."

Being new to Maxville, Nicola had never come across either hero, but as far as she was concerned, this Knight-Fire was great. To be able to quench all of that fire in one move … that was simply amazing. She watched in awe as Dorian threw a fireball at the cowering kids, only to have it stop in mid-air abruptly as the hero held up a hand and halted its flight. Still leaning against the door frame, he plucked the fireball out of the air and 'tossed' it up and down in his hand with a condescending expression behind his sunglasses, looking for all the world like he was about to reprimand a kid for hitting a ball through his window.

"Aren't you a little young to be going into the family business already?" he asked. "What do you call yourself? 'Candle Flame'?"

Dorian ignored the insult. "Sooner or later, the Family will have what they need," he snarled. "You can't protect her all the time, even with all your powers."

This seemed to take Knight-Fire a bit by surprise, judging from the way he tilted his head slightly to one side and the confiscated fireball dissipated. Dorian didn't seem to notice because, she suddenly realized, he was looking straight at _her_.

What on earth was he talking about?

The young pyro paid for his distraction, though. The next thing he knew, there was a strong hand on his shoulder and a thin silvery band snapped around his wrist. He glared up at the hero and flexed his hands the way he had just moments ago when he'd been making fire, but nothing happened so Nicola guessed that the band neutralized his powers somehow.

There was a rush of wind and another hero appeared – apparently his special ability was high speed flight. She glanced at her classmates who were starting to come out from their hiding places, and she assumed from the expressions on the girls' faces that this was the famous Eagle.

The new hero looked at Dorian curiously. "They don't seem to have a problem with child labor, do they?" he quipped.

"I'm _not_ a child!" snapped Dorian.

The two heroes shared a smirk at his petulant response, and then Eagle took hold of him and flew out the door. He almost collided with a pair of firefighters, who looked around the lab, saw that Knight-Fire had the situation under control and then left, probably to check the rest of the building.

When they were gone, the superhero turned his attention to Nicola. For a moment he just stared at her intently as if he was trying to work something out, and then he seemed to realize he had an audience.

"Okay kids, show's over. Everybody out."

The students trooped out reluctantly as the hero pulled out his cell phone. Nicola lingered at the back of the crowd, hoping to overhear something. She still couldn't imagine how she fitted in to all of this.

"Look under Helen St. John," he was saying into his phone as he rubbed his temples with one hand. Evidently his fire talent wasn't as easy and painless as he made out. "Yeah, I know she's officially dead. How about that _unofficial _private file you're so good at cracking?"

Nicola was almost at the door when his voice stopped her.

"Not you."

She turned and looked at him. He continued, "Close the door."

As she did so, the person on the other end of his phone call apparently said something because he listened with a slight frown and then looked at her. "Your name Nicola Cantrell?"

Her shocked expression evidently answered his question, because he said into his phone, "Hole in one. See if you can find out who else knows that, and more importantly what else they know about her. Thanks, R2, bye."

He walked over to where she was standing nervously and sat with his back to the door and windows on the edge of an uncharred desk.

"You're adopted, right?" he asked.

She nodded mutely in response. This was so freaky, and actually quite scary. What else did he know about her?

He took off his sunglasses – wasn't it against some superhero code to reveal his secret identity? – to look her in the eye.

"Nicola, your real name is Helen Peace St. John, and you're my cousin."


	8. Chapter 7: Fireworks

_**Disclaimer: **I do not own Sky High or its characters, settings etc, all of which belong to Disney. Original characters and concepts belong to me._

**Chapter 7: Fireworks **

Nicola just stared at him in disbelief.

"What do you know about your real parents?" Knight-Fire asked quietly.

"Nothing," she replied shortly, looking down. She'd always understood from her mother that her birth parents had abandoned her as a small baby. "I have no interest in people who had no interest in me." She wasn't sure why she was sharing this with a stranger, even if he was apparently related to her so-called real mother. "Anyway, it's never been relevant."

"Before you got your powers, maybe."

So that was where it came from. Her parents.

She looked up at him. "Can you make it go away? Like you did to Dorian?"

That seemed to take him a bit by surprise, and he took a few moments to respond. "Why?"

"Every time I try to help, like today, I just end up making things worse. It's out of control."

"I can help you learn how to control it, but this isn't really the place for this discussion." He picked up a pen and the remaining corner of a half-burnt piece of paper from the lab desk next to him and wrote on it. Holding it up, he said, "Memorize this address."

She read it quickly. It was a top-floor apartment near the center of town; his home, she guessed.

"Will you remember it?" he asked, and she nodded, confused. Her eyes widened as flames suddenly flickered around his fingers and consumed the piece of paper. He opened his hand to let the ashes fall and then, with a slight smile at her, he strode out of the lab.

* * *

Nicola was in two minds about whether to go. Even after spending the rest of the day in the nurse's office because she just couldn't face her classmates, she still wasn't sure. On the one hand, he was related to people she'd never let herself even get curious about, let alone try to seek out. On the other, he had fantastic control over his fire powers and there was a chance he could teach her something, even though his was not quite the same as hers.

That alone made it worth a taxi fare. She would have taken the bus if she knew the routes in this city – maybe next time she'd have a chance to find out.

She walked into the lobby of the apartment block, and headed for the nearest elevator until a now-familiar voice stopped her.

"Not that one."

She turned and saw her cousin standing next to a pillar. Out of his superhero costume, he looked more like the sort of person who would be causing trouble in the city rather than saving it. Apart from his 'tough guy' style in clothing and shoulder-length red-streaked hair, there were also the flame tattoos on both his inner and outer wrists. The tattoos, she knew from experience, weren't exactly optional though; she always made sure she wore clothing that covered hers, which were on her shoulders and looked a lot like his. Except he had more than one set – did that mean he had more than one power?

He led her to another elevator around the corner. There were no 'up' or 'down' buttons, but he passed his thumb over the apparently blank panel and the doors opened. They got in and he placed his left hand on a sensor next to the buttons while looking into a beam that appeared to be an iris scanner, and a panel lit up saying '_Peace, Warren'_. Ah, so that was his name.

All this high-level security was very strange, and Nicola was beginning to wonder if this was his home after all. She also noticed that he wore a wedding ring, which struck her as a bit odd too. The idea of superheroes having families and raising kids seemed way too mundane, but then again that appeared to be where the next generation of superheroes came from.

She could feel that the elevator was moving, but the floor number display was not changing – weirdly enough it still read G for ground floor. Finally it passed 1 and stopped at 2. As they stepped out, there was no doubt that this wasn't her cousin's apartment, but actually the superhero headquarters. There were newspaper cuttings of heroic rescues on a notice board and the other wall was covered in monitors showing various satellite images and news broadcasts from different channels. A young woman dressed almost entirely in purple, even to the point of purple highlights in her hair, was working at a laptop, surrounded by miscellaneous computer equipment.

There was a young man talking on his cell phone. From the looks of things, this was Eagle when he was off-duty.

"Yeah, if you have to print something, the official line is a school lab accident gone wrong," he was saying as he waved to Warren and Nicola. "And you should probably bury it on about page 20 or it'll look like something important happened."

Warren explained to her, "We have a friend at the newspaper who covers up these kind of things we don't really want in the public eye."

"What about freedom of the press?" she asked.

"Sometimes it loses out to national security," replied the woman in purple, still busy at her computer. She looked up. "Considering I can't trust what your cousin might call me, I'd better introduce myself. I'm Magenta, this is Will and Layla will be here in a few minutes. The others can't make it." The last part was said to Will, who nodded in acknowledgment as he closed his cell phone and then smiled warmly at Nicola.

"So what did you manage to dig up, R2?" Warren asked, going over to Magenta.

"R2?" repeated Nicola.

"Star Wars," he replied, as if that explained everything.

Magenta saw her confusion. "Warren is pathologically incapable of calling anyone by name."

Will seemed to agree. "Yeah, in fact if he calls you by your first name, you know there's serious trouble."

"Stronghold," warned Warren.

His friend just grinned as he sat on a couch. "See? I know I'm not really in trouble."

"Guys?" Magenta drew their attention back to the issue at hand, and then looked at Nicola who also sat down a bit nervously. "Where shall I start?"

"Could you tell me about my parents?" the girl asked in a small voice. She knew she should be concerned about what Dorian had said, but at that point she couldn't help being more curious about where she'd come from.

"Sure." She typed a command on her laptop and the big screen in front of them came up with two identity photographs. "Your mother, Venus Peace, was the twin sister of Warren's mother Zoë. She was a superhero called Firefly, second-generation pyro-psionic. Your father, Robert St. John, however, was first-generation. Neither of his parents had any powers, but when he was a kid he was bitten by a poisonous snake that turned out to be a pyro who had been transformed by a super villain. Not only did Robert survive the toxin but he also developed the transformed pyro's fire powers. He became a hero called Flamestar."

"Whatever you were told, they didn't abandon you," put in Warren. "They were killed in an accident and it seems the National Council of Superheroes decided to report you dead as well to protect you."

"From who?" Nicola asked, although she had a sneaky suspicion she knew the answer already.

"Dorian Battle's little stunt today wasn't just because he was bored in science class," Will answered, "He's from a family of super villains and he probably thought he was contributing to their master plan by exposing you."

Magenta took over. "According to my research, you showed up on their radar about a year ago, the first time your powers, uh, caused an incident. But it seems they only really started taking interest in you about three months ago." She turned to Warren, "In fact, very soon after you – "

The pyro cleared his throat to cut her off.

"Might also be related to all the little shenanigans they've been up to lately," mused Will.

Warren and Maj shared a glance. It made a lot of sense. In the past couple of months the Guardians had dealt with a number of fire-related incidents where Warren had put his new pyro-psionic powers to good use. Magenta and Ethan were both positive that the Battles were behind all of the events which up until now had seemed to have no purpose. Of course, if their intention was to test the rumors about Warren becoming a fire elemental, then suddenly it all made a lot of sense.

Will continued, "Oh, by the way, when I was booking today's delinquent I learnt something interesting – it seems his old man is Incendiary."

"That could explain where he got his concept of subtlety from," remarked Warren.

Maj frowned slightly. "You'd think he'd have learned a lesson from how his father's career took a nosedive after that little fiasco up at Sky High."

Will shrugged. "Maybe, but it seems the Battle family has a problem with their younger generation being… " he trailed off, trying to think of the right word.

"Loose canons?" suggested Warren.

"Hotheaded?" put in Magenta with a mischievous smirk. Warren just gave her a look but it had no effect whatsoever; not that it _ever_ had with her. Nicola realized that this was evidently some sort of long-standing private joke.

Will cleared his throat. "Guys, we have a visitor, remember?"

"And speaking of me," Nicola said, "You haven't actually told me what this super villain family want me for."

"Your powers," Warren answered simply.

"That's just great. My so-called 'powers', which just make everything worse, and we keep having to move because people ask questions, and now I find out bad people want me because of them. I wish I never got any _powers_."

Will looked a bit taken aback at this, and Magenta asked gently, "What exactly _is_ your power?"

"I can't really explain it," she replied, feeling uncomfortable. She looked at Warren. "It's different to yours."

Will opened his mouth to say something about the fact that there was no fire power she could possibly have that Warren didn't, but closed it when he saw the look he got from his friend, who then turned to his cousin again.

"Show us."

She looked around at the couches and equipment nervously.

"Don't worry, Warren won't let you burn the place down," Magenta assured her. "He's a firefighter, you know."

Nicola still looked a bit uncertain, but she gave a little nod. Warren took out his lighter and flicked it open.

"How did you know I'd need that?" she asked as he held it up, about to light it.

"If your powers involved _creating_ fire, the Battle Boys wouldn't be so interested in finding you."

She appeared confused at his cryptic statement, but he shook his head at her unasked question and lit his Zippo. With obvious reluctance she stretched out a hand to the flame and absorbed it.

"Looks like all the proof Ethan needs that pyro-absorption is a separate power," commented Layla, who had arrived without anybody noticing. Warren looked around and gave her a quick smile before turning his attention back to Nicola, who was staring apprehensively at her fingers.

She jumped as her hand suddenly ignited and she looked at Warren. "Now what? I can't make it stop." She stood up, trying desperately to keep her flaming fingers away from anything or anyone that she might burn by mistake.

"Just relax," Warren instructed, standing up too, "You can't control it if you're afraid of it. And there's no need to be afraid of it because it can't hurt you, and it can't hurt anyone else because you _do_ have the ability to control it."

Nicola turned her anxious gaze from her hand to him. "I do?"

He smiled slightly in encouragement. "Close your hand, slowly. Imagine that you're crunching up a piece of paper or squeezing a sponge, something harmless that's under your control."

She closed her hand carefully, and the flames disappeared. For the first time in hours, she couldn't help grinning.

* * *

When she had successfully controlled and extinguished the fire three times, Warren seemed to think that was enough for one go, and Nicola was very grateful. It had been quite a day for her, starting with Dorian and then progressing through finding a long-lost relative and learning about her heritage, to finding out that she was in danger. But at least she wasn't in danger from her own power anymore, and that was something.

Sometime during her lesson in pyro-absorption, the official name for her power it seemed, Magenta had left and her cousin's wife had arrived. Layla certainly made an interesting contrast to Warren's image with her hippie style and sunny disposition. But, then again, from the looks Will, Warren and Magenta, this seemed to be quite an eclectic group of superheroes.

After a brief history of the Battle family and why they were after her – and Nicola noticed that there was none of the light banter and mutual teasing during the understandably sensitive issue of Warren's relation to the mafia family – there was the question of how to keep her safe from them.

Layla took off her necklace and gave it to her. She showed her how to activate the panic button on the back of the sun-shaped pendant, while Will typed out a requisition for 24-hour surveillance for her and Warren looked over his shoulder and pointed out typos.

"Thanks," Nicola said to Layla as she put the necklace on.

"This must be really overwhelming for you," the redhead said sympathetically.

"Yeah. So, uh, do you have a fire power too?"

"No, I have control over plants."

Nicola smiled. It must be so nice to have a peaceful power. "Can you talk to them too?"

Layla shook her head. "I just manipulate them; I don't actually interact with them as such."

"Probably a good thing or she'd starve," put in Warren, still looking over Will's shoulder. He glanced around and saw their questioning expressions, so he continued, "Look, she's a vegetarian because her mother talks to animals. What would she eat if she started feeling sorry for plants too?"

Will snickered and Layla said to Nicola in a mock-hurt tone, "Ignore them. Boys just don't have any feelings."

"I thought you weren't into labels," Warren shot back, but Nicola could see the humor in his eyes too.

"I thought you were busy proof-reading Will's requisition," and Layla's response ended that discussion quite successfully.

Just then Nicola noticed the time, and considering she would never make it home before her mother started to worry about her, Will changed quickly into Eagle and flew her home.

Yet another experience for one truly mind-boggling day.

* * *

Will returned to the headquarters after seeing Nicola safely home and checking that the surveillance team were already in place.

Layla, typically, was hyped about the events of the afternoon. "It was so nice to meet a relative of Warren's who … who … " she trailed off.

"Doesn't need to be arrested on sight?" Warren suggested wryly.

"Uh… "

He smiled slightly to reassure her he wasn't upset. "Kinda nice for me too, actually."

"She looks a lot like that photo of your mom," she remarked.

"That's sort of what tipped me off."

"Quite weird, though," said Will, who had been lost in thought.

"Yeah," replied Warren, "Next time I'm in Washington I think I need to have a little _chat_ with the NCS about their need-to-know policy."

"Uh, yeah, that too." Warren raised his eyebrows in query, and he carried on, "I wasn't talking about you suddenly finding out you have a cousin; I meant the thing of her not wanting her powers. I dunno, maybe it comes from starting Sky High as the only powerless one in a family of legendary superheroes… "

"Or maybe it comes from the fact that _your_ powers aren't quite as destructive," responded Warren.

"Aren't they?" Will challenged. "Are you sure about that?"

"Look, apart from accidentally starting a domino rally with the high-rise buildings downtown, your powers just don't have the out-of-control consequences that fire can have."

Warren was downplaying the side effects of Will's powers completely and he probably knew it, but Will decided not to call him on it. He could see there was something bothering his friend and it was more personal than just his cousin's attitude towards her powers. A quick shared glance with Layla confirmed his suspicions.

"Warren, what's really bugging you?"

"Nothing, I'm just saying I can see where she's coming from about your powers sometimes making things worse."

"They don't."

Warren looked at him. "Don't what?"

"_Your_ powers don't make things worse," Will clarified. Warren just shook his head.

"He doesn't believe me either," remarked Layla sadly.

Will tried again. "Warren, look at how easily you put out that fire today, and all those people you saved from the burning subway last week, not to mention when you hauled all our asses out of Arctic Flame's fire a few months ago. Would you really prefer it if you hadn't been able to do all that?"

Warren was silent for a few moments. "The more useful they are, the more they can be abused too."

* * *

Will thought he was being ridiculous, Layla thought he was being paranoid and the rest of the team thought he was nuts, but Warren was determined to not let his dream about going dark side become reality.

The best defense he could think of was to ensure that if the worst happened, his friends would be able stop him before he did something terrible. And so the Guardians spent an … _interesting_ weekend working on strategies and learning how to exploit his weaknesses.

Will had managed to organize the use of the Sky High gym. Of course, the first two hours were spent investigating all the upgrades the Save the Citizen gear had received since they were at school. These included hazards such as a moat and sinking sand, while the 'citizen' was now guarded by a set of giant swinging pendulums. Evidently Boomer was trying to give the heroes more of a challenge than just their opponents' powers these days, which would probably make it a more realistic exercise.

Meanwhile Zach had found the controls for the coach's platform, which led to half an hour of making grand entrances and exits through the floor. The others just left him to it for a while, seeing that he needed to work through some of his old Boomer issues, and then it was time to get down to business.

Each of Warren's powers, like most people's, came with a limitation. As they all knew, with pyrokinesis, he couldn't get too cold and pyro-psionics gave him a headache, especially if he overdid it. Ethan's theory was that his 'psionic headaches were caused by the way he'd only developed this power relatively late in life, whereas people like Arctic Flame could control huge amounts of fire without any apparent side-effects. The drawback to pyro-absorption was the limit to how much fire he could absorb – when he overheated he lost control of the fire, much like Nicola had, but getting too hot had also almost suffocated him once.

It was the limits to pyro-construction that made for the most interesting part of the weekend.

Ethan was in full Professor mode, pacing up and down in front of the stands where they were sitting as he lectured. "As we learnt from our altercation with Arctic Flame, if a flame construct that you're controlling makes contact with fire that is also being controlled 'psionically, then –"

"It hurts like hell," Kate supplied, wincing at the memory.

"Yes, that's because of the psychic backlash caused by the collision between two –"

This time it was Zach who broke in before he could get going properly. "But, like, why didn't it hurt Arctic Flame too?"

"Well, this is mainly conjecture at this point, but my theory is that a pyro-constructor's mind is much more closely linked to his creation –"

"Or _her_," put in Warren on cue, out of habit. The others shared smirks at how well-trained Layla had him. "What?" he challenged.

Ethan cleared his throat. "As I was saying if someone would let me actually _finish_ a sentence, the pyro-constructor is mentally much closer to the construct than the pyro-psionic is to the fire he _or she_ is controlling, so therefore a 'constructor is much more likely to get hurt in this way."

This was obviously a limitation for Kate too, and something Warren was particularly concerned about in view of what he did to her in his dream.

It was more by accident than anything else that they discovered something curious about their powers. On Warren's insistence, Kate was chasing after his construct, which he was controlling, with a flock of hers on 'autopilot'. Now and then she would very briefly establish mental contact with each of them in turn to give them finer commands. It all made for quite an impressive air show, although she was wondering if he was some sort of masochist, willingly opening himself up to the chance of that kind of pain.

After a while of ducking and diving between its pursuers, skillfully avoiding contact with any of them, Warren's phoenix was suddenly faced with two fiery dragons dead ahead and no space to swerve into with more of Kate's constructs surrounding it.

"I'm sorr–" started Kate, seeing the collision coming, along with the inevitable pain it would cause Warren, but she was cut off by an amazing sight.

Just before impact, Warren's construct exploded into sparks like a firework, allowing the pursuing fiery dragons to pass through the space it was occupying without harming it. Then, incredibly, the sparks re-formed into a phoenix when the coast was clear. Meanwhile, Kate's constructs collided with each other and disintegrated, but being on autopilot she was unaffected by their destruction.

She didn't even notice that had happened to them because she was too busy staring at Warren, who looked equally confused.

"How did you do that?"

"Not sure, actually," he replied, calling the construct to him with his usual 'come-here' gesture with his fingers. He stared at it for a moment as it hovered, trying to remember exactly what he'd done in that moment. It suddenly came to him and the phoenix dispersed into a cloud of sparks. The sparks floated around him in an amorphous cloud for a while and then he made them spread out even thinner until they weren't really noticeable in the air anymore.

Warren closed his eyes and concentrated on his construct in kit-form, and the sparks rapidly drew together and coalesced into a phoenix again.

By now Layla, who had watching from the safety of the stands, had joined them. "Well, that was interesting."

"Could also be quite useful," commented Kate, trying to do the same trick without much success. Each time she dispersed her construct into sparks, she just couldn't get it to re-form. That was how it always was with her power – the construct stopped being a coherent entity when it was a cloud of sparks. She turned to Warren, "So, how _did_ you do that?"

"I don't know," he replied, a bit puzzled. "I just … did it."

Ethan wasn't far behind Layla in joining the conversation. "But you must have _some_ idea, Warren," he protested.

"I _don't_, okay?" Warren responded a bit heatedly.

"But – "

"_No_, Ethan!" There were a few things he didn't understand about his own powers, especially the new ones; this type of thing wasn't exactly covered in Mad Science. And while he'd learnt to accept that some things had to remain a mystery (at least until Ethan came up with some sort of theory), it was a little bugging when they all expected him to just know the answer. This kind of attention from his friends was something he'd never quite got used to.

"I got it!" yelled Kate suddenly, and sure enough, her construct was successfully phasing between sparks and coherent form at her command.

To Warren's relief that also deflected Ethan's attention to Kate, who unfortunately was not clear on the mechanics of their new trick either.

"I just _did_ it," she shrugged in echo of Warren's explanation.

That wasn't much of an answer as far as Ethan was concerned, but Warren felt a lot better knowing that Kate had a form of defense against him. She wouldn't be in danger of what he did to her in his dream if she could simply disperse her constructs into an untouchable cloud of sparks at will.

Much as he desperately hoped it would never be necessary for his friend to have to defend herself against him, he couldn't help feeling that day's little discovery might come in very handy one day.


	9. Chapter 8: Battle Ground

_**Disclaimer: **I do not own Sky High or its characters, settings etc, all of which belong to Disney. Original characters and concepts belong to me._

**Chapter 8: Battle Ground**

Over the next few weeks Nicola began to come to terms with the latest major upheaval in her life. It was quite a change of mindset; after spending 14 years thinking her birth parents had been good-for-nothings who hadn't wanted her, she'd suddenly found out that they had been superheroes and she'd been denied any knowledge of them apparently for her own protection. Of course, Warren had a few things to say about _that_, none of it complimentary and not all of it in English.

Her adoptive parents hadn't been too sure about her new-found cousin at first, but they couldn't help being grateful to him for helping her to control her powers. She didn't tell them about Dorian and the Battle family because that would only make them worried, and there wasn't much they could do about the situation. Besides, she had the panic button and she was under 24-hour surveillance; there wasn't much more _anyone_ could do.

The question of the surveillance confused her at first considering she couldn't see anyone watching her, until Will told her that was the general idea.

It seemed that the superheroes assigned to this type of work were those termed 'hero support', people with so-called 'lesser powers'. A group of them, dissatisfied with being treated as second-class heroes, had formed a specialist agency called Under The Radar which was now highly in demand for their skills in undercover work. Will told her that almost every newspaper seller, street sweeper, ice cream vendor, dog-walker and pram-pusher in her neighborhood, even her school bus driver, was now a secret agent.

Nicola also got to meet the rest of Warren's superhero team, which just confirmed her first impression that they were a pretty mixed bunch. She found it quite interesting that none of them looked _that_ different to their alter egos, and yet the average citizen was blithely unaware of their dual identities. It seemed that people really only see what they expect to – and what they _want_ to – especially when it comes to their superheroes.

For Nicola, however, it was fun knowing something no one else did, and to think _That's my cousin!_ when Maxville's heroes were on TV. It somewhat helped to compensate for the fact that there were some really bad guys who wanted her.

Well, somewhat.

* * *

The Guardians had taken over the Strongholds' Secret Sanctum again, but only for the evening. The pool table had been removed and Steve's trophy collection was back in storage to make space for Will and Kate's engagement dinner. Not that there were many guests – just the team themselves, his parents and her mom. 

Steve had just stood up to make a speech when he was interrupted by two different panic alarms. One was from Under The Radar to report that they'd just lost contact with their two agents watching Nicola's house … the other was from Nicola herself.

Without even needing to ask for permission, Magenta pulled her laptop out of her bag and hooked it up with Jetstream's set-up to track Nicola from the homing beacon in Layla's pendant.

They geared up quickly, but not before Warren put his foot down about who would be part of the rescue operation and who wasn't. "This is going to be a firefight and it's likely to get ugly, so absolutely _no one_ who isn't fireproof is going in," he ordered.

"But Warren – " Layla started to protest but he cut her off sharply.

"Don't argue with me, Layla. This is _not_ open for discussion."

She just gave him an angry look and went to sit with Kate's mom who quietly tried to convince her that he was right.

Meanwhile Magenta was tracking Nicola's progress. "That's odd. They've just gone straight past one of their hideouts."

"Maybe they know we're aware of that one so they're avoiding it," suggested Ethan, going through his database of villains on his own laptop. Like Magenta, he didn't go anywhere without it.

"Yeah, we did kinda bust that one a few months ago," put in Zach.

Kate joined them as she pulled on her gloves, "Do you think they know we can track her?"

"Doubt it," shrugged Maj. "If they were worried about that they would have searched her for transmitters of any kind, which they evidently didn't."

"Good thing they don't have any technopaths among them," said Ethan.

Warren walked up to them. "Yeah, there has to be _some_ advantage to all that in-breeding."

"They'd need to take her someplace secure," Josie pointed out. She and Steve were going to be joining the Guardians; Steve was, of course, invulnerable and her super-suit would afford her enough protection for her to be able to fly in quickly and get the hostage out to safety.

Magenta looked closely at her screen. "You know, they might even be taking her to their headquarters."

"Then we could be able to nail the lot of them," said Will as he returned from fetching the van.

"Actually, I was hoping to rescue her before they even get her to their destination," answered Warren.

"And then what?" Ethan reasoned. "We rescue her, most of them get away, we don't know where their hideout is so they're still going strong and they can come snatch her again next time, only then they'll be more careful. Warren, we might never get another chance like this again."

Warren agreed reluctantly. "Fine," he sighed. "But we're cutting it very close."

Will said, "Look, this is going to be a firefight like you said, so wouldn't you prefer it to be tucked away in their HQ rather than on the streets of the City surrounded by civilians?"

"I don't really care, Will," replied the pyro darkly, causing his friend to glance at him in concern. "I will burn this City to the ground before I allow them to create their own fire elemental." With that he strode off.

Will looked after him, hoping he was only exaggerating for effect. Still, he could understand why his friend was so adamant about the issue, given how potentially dangerous he knew himself to be. That level of fire power in the hands of the Battle family … well, he'd prefer not to think about what they would do.

* * *

By the time Nicola and her captors had reached their destination, the Guardians were halfway there in the van. 

"I'm pretty sure that's their main base," said Magenta, looking at Nicola's location beacon on her screen. "It's right in the area the National Council of Superheroes have estimated them to be, although it seemed like a really unlikely location for a den of super villains." No one even needed to ask where she got that kind of classified information any more.

"In that case, we could be dealing with about two dozen family members plus the godfather himself." Ethan put up some photos on his screen for the others to see. "That's Hellfire, believed to be the current head of the family."

"Awfully young to be the patriarch, don't you think?" commented Kate, looking at the picture of a man in his early forties. "Or is that an old photo?"

"No, it's quite recent. And yeah, he's definitely the youngest godfather in the family's history," Magenta agreed. "The NCS have no idea why either."

Ethan continued his briefing with some more photos. "Apart from him, there is the rest of the family leadership, anywhere between 18 and 30 according to our sources, including about six in his inner circle."

"But would they all be there in one place?" asked Will hopefully.

"It's a big deal for the family, this whole fire elemental breeding business," said Warren quietly.

At that point the van arrived at their destination, part of the fashionable business district, which was deserted at this time of night. Zach parked on the roof of an office block with huge glass windows that seemed a lot darker than those of the buildings around it.

'_What is this place anyway?'_ he asked on the comm.

"A law firm called Blaise & Sons," replied Magenta, "A family business, apparently."

"Figures," commented Warren.

"Be careful, guys," Maj added. "I can't find any sort of security camera system in the building to tap into, so you're gonna be going in blind."

Will flew Warren down to the front entrance while his mother took his father to the back door.

Warren tapped lightly on the nearest window. "Armored glass," he commented to Will. In a building full of pyros, that made a lot of sense.

Kate entered the building from the rooftop at the same time as Will and the Commander crashed through their respective doors.

The mafia family seemed to have been overconfident in the secrecy of their headquarters, because there was only a skeleton crew of thugs guarding the place. They were quickly taken care of and Will called for the NCS clean-up crew to take them into custody.

The heroes met up outside what seemed to be a conference room that covered a third of the bottom floor and the floor above it. Warren placed a hand on one of the locked doors and concentrated with his pyro-psionic sense.

He turned to the others and nodded. There was definitely at least one pyrokinetic in there who was powered up.

Will and his father each took hold of one of the heavy steel doors.

* * *

Nicola was, quite understandably, terrified. Not only for herself, but also for her parents who were had been kidnapped as well. If things got ugly, she was at least fireproof – they weren't. 

The room they were in looked like a large double-storey conference chamber. The doors and all of the furniture appeared to be metal, and there were alcoves with lit torches along the walls in addition to the normal electric lighting. About twenty men dressed in black were assembled there as her kidnappers presented her to the villain who was evidently running the entire show. From what she'd overheard on the way here, his name was Hellfire.

He was seemed quite young to be the so-called godfather of a mafia family, about 40-ish from the looks of things. Like the others, he wore fitting black leather armor that looked a bit like a long trenchcoat. His dark hair had a number of red streaks in it, more like Warren on that score than the other Battle family members.

"Let my parents go!" Nicola demanded, trying very hard not to show how afraid she was. "It's me you want."

"Not quite," replied the super villain. "Actually, it's your _cooperation_ we want – we don't _need_ it, but it's easier that way – and they're here to encourage that."

"What's going on, Nicola?" asked her mother anxiously. "Has this got something to do with your cousin Warren?"

Hellfire answered for her with a nasty half-smile, "It has _everything_ to do with him."

"He'll rescue us," she stated as firmly as she could, as much to reassure herself and her parents as to defy the villains.

"I'm sure he would if he knew where you are," sneered the godfather. He ignited one hand and held it tauntingly near her mother who cringed and tried to pull away from the fire but her captor held her tightly. "You'll cooperate, won't you, Helen?" he asked, using her birth name condescendingly.

Suddenly every flame in the room was extinguished and Nicola gave him her best imitation of Warren's smirk. There was only one person she knew who could do that.

Sure enough, a moment later the heavy doors and their hinges were ripped off the walls and her cousin stalked through the entrance, flanked by Eagle and the Commander.

* * *

Warren was right. It _did_ turn into a firefight, a pretty ugly one and very quickly. In seconds there was fire flying everywhere, except in a circle around Nicola and her parents. Any fireball that went shooting in their direction came to an abrupt halt in mid-air. Even Hellfire and the pyros restraining the three hostages were unable to do anything because their fire disappeared as soon as they powered up. Nicola had to admit she was completely in awe of her cousin, who was also making his own contributions to the firefight at the same time as protecting her and her parents. How many powers did he have anyway? 

Will flew in and made a grab for Nicola but a well-aimed fireball from one of the villains caused him to veer off-course. He shook his head in exasperation at his involuntary reaction; Warren had often told him off for flinching automatically in situations like this even though fire couldn't hurt him and he knew it. Correcting his course slightly, he snatched her parents instead. They were the most vulnerable ones in the battle, and it was his instinct to protect innocent bystanders. Besides, it was a waste of Warren's mental energy and concentration to have to continue protecting them using his pyro-psionics. Outside the conference room Will handed the hostages over to his mother who had flown in to extract them, and then he headed back into the fray.

By now the fire and smoke were so thick it was difficult to see anything. Will whipped around the room with a handful of neutralizing bracelets, and in a couple of minutes there were a dozen frustrated pyros, along with the other dozen whom the Commander had already rendered unconscious.

Warren saw what Will was doing, and followed his progress with a wall of fire that effectively corralled the villains and prevented them from escaping by some sort of secret passageway. Now that their powers were neutralized, they'd also lost their invulnerability to fire, as a few discovered quite painfully.

As the smoke cleared, however, two things became blatantly obvious – Hellfire was gone, and he had Nicola with him.

What was worse, he'd obviously worked out how they had traced her. Layla's pendant was lying on the floor, destroyed.

* * *

"Where the hell are they?" demanded Warren for the fourth time. They'd been searching the conference room for hidden escape routes for the past five minutes, during which time the godfather could've gotten anywhere. 

'_I don't know,'_ replied Maj, getting a bit testy with being asked the same question yet again, _'I told you before that they don't have a security camera system here for me to tap into.'_

Zach added, _'And it's not like we've got a tricorder or something to detect life signs, you know.'_

'_I've got some constructs searching, but none of them have come back yet,'_ reported Kate from elsewhere in the building.

Warren wished that the NCS clean-up crew hadn't taken the captured villains away into custody before he'd had a chance to question them about secret passageways, not that anyone would have let him do any … forceful interrogating, he suspected.

Meanwhile Layla had been doing some rather more constructive thinking. She took control of the trees lining the road and sent their roots deep into the ground towards the building. When they kept on encountering concrete and steel, she realized where the hidden escape might be.

'_Have you checked the floor?'_ she asked. _'The building goes a lot deeper underground than just your average foundations.' _

Will wasted no time in punching a hole through the floor, and he and Warren jumped down into the underground chamber that was revealed. It seemed to cover the same area as the conference room, but there were passages leading away from it in five different directions. The two heroes shared a glance in the dim light and split up to search. Will told Kate what they'd found and she headed down to help look.

Warren created a few flame constructs and sent them off to search, and then made another which he kept under his control and flew a bit ahead of him to light the way. It was just around the corner from him when it exploded into a shower of sparks, and it felt like his head did too. There was only one thing that could cause this kind of pain, he realized as he fell to his hands and knees in agony. His construct had collided with someone else's and it certainly wasn't Kate.

'_What just happened?'_ asked Will.

"Hellfire's … a 'constructor," Warren managed to reply between gasps.

'_I thought the whole family are all 'kinetics,'_ said Magenta.

'_I guess it's possible one of them's a pyro-constructor as well as pyrokinetic,'_ ventured Ethan uncertainly.

'_That could explain how he got to be the godfather so young,'_ observed Kate.

Will asked Warren, _'Are you okay, man?'_

"Don't worry about me," he snapped in reply. "Concentrate on the mission!"

Will flew over to the area Warren had been searching, hoping that Hellfire might still be in the vicinity of his construct. It didn't take him long to locate the godfather and his hostage. They were in a well-lit area, almost at a getaway vehicle parked next to a tunnel that probably led to the surface.

Cutting the pyro off from his means of escape, Will landed. "You won't get out that way, Hellfire."

"Are you sure about that?" the super villain asked smoothly, shifting his grip on Nicola so that he held her neck in one hand while the other was still free to fight with Will. "Get out of my way or I will break her neck. You know her invulnerability isn't nearly as good as yours."

"Isn't it?" challenged Will, but the question was actually aimed at Ethan.

'_Sorry, Eagle, he's probably right,'_ Ethan replied. _'He could be bluffing, but do you really want to take the chance?'_

Will asked the villain, "Won't that defeat the object of kidnapping her in the first place?"

"She doesn't need to be alive for us to harvest her DNA," was Hellfire's chilling response. "So I repeat, get out of my way or she's dead."

Will hated moments like this. He knew that unless he acted quickly Hellfire would kill her, and if he complied the villain would get away with what he needed, and there was no guarantee she would be safe anyway. Will couldn't help remembering what Warren had said about burning the entire City if necessary. He certainly knew the stakes, but that didn't make the choice any easier.

He breathed a quick sigh of relief when he was saved from the decision by the arrival of a pair of fiery dragons, closely followed by Kate. Surely the super villain wouldn't be able to resist the temptation of a dogfight.

* * *

Warren forced himself to sit up despite the blinding pain. He could do this, he had to. After all, Kate had pulled herself together after one of her constructs had connected with Arctic Flame's fire, surely he could as well. Maybe it was worse because it was two constructs colliding, or maybe because it was on top of the other pyro-psionics he'd been doing? 

Either way, it wasn't an excuse. There was no way he was going to let Hellfire escape, and definitely not with Nicola. After a couple of attempts with uncoordinated fingers, he managed to retrieve a neutralizer and a syringe of Ethan's headache cocktail from his pocket.

He quickly flicked the neutralizer around his wrist, knowing he would probably have Stronghold on his case later for making himself vulnerable in hostile territory. But he didn't have much of a choice; they'd discovered that there was a downside to the invulnerability factor his powers provided – it was impossible to give himself an injection. Stronghold probably had the same problem, but _he_ never needed anyone sticking needles in him.

With the thumb of his other hand hovering over the biometric scanner on the neutralizing bracelet just in case he needed to remove it in a hurry, Warren injected himself in the thigh. At that point he was very grateful that the syringe was an auto-injector, similar to the ones used by the US Military, because he wouldn't have been able to safely operate a regular needle just then. There certainly was an advantage to knowing someone in the pharmaceutical industry, and of course Ethan wasn't complaining considering it gave him an excuse to keep phoning the Alchemistress. One of these days he might actually get up the guts to ask her out, but that was another story entirely.

All of this was accomplished in about two seconds of vulnerability. Warren took off the neutralizer and sat with his head in his hands waiting for the drug to take effect. As the pain began to recede a bit he opened his eyes and tried to focus on what was going on elsewhere in the building. The video feed from Will's sunglasses camera showed that Hellfire was threatening to snap Nicola's neck if Will didn't get out of his way.

What was he hesitating for? Warren was about to tell him to go and nail the villain even if it meant sacrificing Nicola, although he knew he would probably never forgive himself for that, when both he and Stronghold were saved from the dilemma by Kate arriving on the scene to distract the godfather.

By then Warren's headache, while still extremely painful, had cleared enough for him to be able to use his other powers. With his 'psionic fire-awareness he could tell that Kate and Hellfire were both creating kamikaze constructs at a rapid rate, but it didn't seem to be working that well as a distraction, and Will was still hesitating.

Warren concentrated on the godfather's constructs themselves. For obvious reasons Hellfire was releasing his fire animations almost as soon as they were created, but there had to be a brief moment of mental contact when he was giving it its instructions. It was an extremely short window of opportunity, and Warren missed on the first two attempts.

On his third attempt, time seemed to slow down as he 'psionically grabbed control of Hellfire's construct just as it took coherent form. This was exactly like what he did to Kate in his dream, but he forced that thought (and the accompanying revulsion) out of his head.

* * *

It came as quite a surprise when the godfather suddenly reacted with extreme pain and the newly-formed construct hovering near his hand froze. He didn't quite let go of Nicola, however this was just the diversion Will needed. Reminding himself to thank Warren later, he took his chance.

* * *

The next few seconds seemed like hours to Warren. He had Hellfire's construct in a firm but delicate grip, and it would be so easy to simply crush the animation, completely imploding the super villain's mind and leaving him senseless.

Tempting … but not actually an option.

Moral issues aside, it was getting harder and harder to retain the fragile balance of his 'psionic grip. The headache was beginning to overpower him again and he was getting desperately afraid that he would falter and the godfather would escape.

What was taking Stronghold so damn long?

* * *

Despite how long it felt to Warren, it really only took a few seconds for Will to apprehend the villain. When he was safely neutralized, Will took both him and Nicola and flew quickly up out of the hidden basement. He handed the godfather over to the clean-up crew and reassured Nicola that her parents were safe. 

Warren, however, he wasn't so sure about …

* * *

At first he thought that the headache drug had finally kicked in. As soon as Stronghold neutralized Hellfire, the villain released the construct and Warren extinguished it. And the pain just vanished. 

But then he realized his thinking wasn't any clearer and he was feeling cold… colder than the last time he messed with Weatherman… colder than he'd ever felt in his life…

'_Warren, are you okay?'_

He wasn't sure who'd asked. It could have been Layla … or maybe it was Will … damn, he definitely wasn't thinking straight…

He couldn't answer, he could barely even think … he was just so … cold …

* * *

By the time they got him to level 4a of Maxville Hospital ten minutes later, his temperature was below 130 and still decreasing, and Ethan was very worried. 

Five equally concerned friends were gathered at the observation window overlooking the isolation room, watching their doctor and the nurses scurrying around their fallen team member. His bed was surrounded by heaters and hot water bottles covered his body. A warm IV was running into his arm and he was breathing heated air through the oxygen mask over his mouth and nose.

Ethan came out to join the others. "We're doing everything we can," he reported. "His temperature isn't dropping as fast as it was, but it's still going down."

"I don't understand why this is happening," said Layla, distressed, "All he did was overdo the 'psionics a bit."

"And he also got nailed by the godfather's construct," added Maj.

"Actually, Layla, he overdid the pyro-psionics _a lot_," Ethan corrected her and looked at Magenta. "The collision with the construct definitely wasn't good for him, but the real problem was when he took 'psionic control of Hellfire's construct."

"But I thought you said a couple of weeks ago that the psychic backlash doesn't affect the 'psionic, only the 'constructor?" Kate was confused.

"In terms of their types of fire colliding, yes. This was an issue of fighting for control of the _same_ fire. What's more, Warren could have easily destroyed Hellfire's construct, and his mind along with it – "

"Like he did to Kate in his dream," murmured Layla.

"But I believe it took a lot more mental effort to _not_ hurt Hellfire." They looked at Ethan in surprise, so he tried to explain, "Well, think about trying to hold something delicate like a flower petal in a firm grip. It's really difficult to hold it tightly enough not to drop it without crushing it, right? Same thing here. And that act of mercy may just have cost Warren everything."

Zach asked, "Like, what do you mean, 'everything'?"

"Ethan, are you saying that he could – ?" Will couldn't bear to say the word.

"If his temperature keeps dropping, he will. It's part of being a pyro – his body has to be between 140 and 180 in order to function." Ethan sighed, feeling utterly helpless. "And there's nothing else I can do."

Layla pressed her forehead against the glass of the observation window, tears rolling down her cheeks as she gazed into the isolation room. All she could think was that their last words had been spoken in anger.


	10. Chapter 9: Burnout

_**Disclaimer: **I do not own Sky High or its characters, settings etc, all of which belong to Disney. Original characters and concepts belong to me._

**Chapter 9: Burnout **

Elizabeth Hoffman had come a long way from being the blond sidekick who could turn into a big red, white and green ball. Starting out running errands at Maxville's biggest newspaper, she had quickly worked her way up to being one of the paper's top investigative reporters. She owed her rapid success partly to the fact that she always had the inside scoop when it came to any crisis involving superheroes or villains. But, dreams of Pulitzers aside, Elizabeth's main responsibility was actually to ensure that the secret identities of Maxville's heroes and heroes-in-training remained, well, secret. At times that meant that she had to squash a story that would blow a hero's cover or endanger them in some other way, sometimes at great personal cost for a person in her profession. It might have appeared to be a small, sidekicky duty, but she knew she was doing something valuable for the hero cause. And besides, it was great fun knowing things that the other reporters didn't, and then infuriating them by not revealing her source in true journalistic fashion.

But this was one story that she wished she didn't know about.

She sighed sadly as she re-read her article for the next day's front page.

_FALLEN HERO_

_By Elizabeth Hoffman_

_It was the best of times and the worst of times on Saturday evening, when the Guardians of the City finally brought down one of the most dangerous super villain families in the State. The heroes apprehended the entire leadership in a dramatic raid on the headquarters of Blaise & Sons, the law firm that has allegedly been acting as a front for their criminal activities. The FBI are currently using information found on the scene to trace and arrest the non-superpowered subsidiary operations._

_However it was a bittersweet victory, as a singular act of heroism claimed the life of one of our protectors …_

Elizabeth stopped reading with another sigh. She couldn't help being affected by it, even though she knew that the story was not _entirely_ true. Before giving her the official line, Will Stronghold had told her the whole truth of the past 24 hours.

* * *

Warren's temperature had finally stabilized at 98.6, a long five hours after it began to drop. His EEG was normal for being unconscious and his pulse was strong. It seemed that his life was no longer in danger, but in fact his problems were only just beginning. 

They were gathered around his bed and Will was relating to them the NCS report on how the Battle family was pretty much finished, but without the enthusiasm such news deserved. No one was really listening anyway.

Layla was holding Warren's hand and gently stroking the tattoos on his wrist when she noticed that the flame design didn't stand out against his skin as much as it used to. She frowned and reached over to his hair, separating out the streaks. They were also less red. Ethan realized what she was looking at, and he opened Warren's hospital gown for them to check the phoenix tattoo on his chest as well.

As the six of them watched in stunned silence, all of Warren's tattoos and hair streaks faded completely.

"Ethan?" asked Layla desperately and they all looked at him for answers but he was equally bewildered.

Kate ventured, "Um, the hair streaks and tattoos are outward signs of being a pyro, so…"

"In all likelihood, this means he's lost his powers," finished Ethan sadly.

When Warren woke up an hour later, that awful diagnosis proved to be correct. It was heart-breaking to see him try so desperately to power up … with absolutely no success.

Warren sighed as he stared at his hands. "Guess I got my forfeit for this one."

But this forfeit would have far-reaching consequences. For obvious reasons, he wouldn't be able to remain an active member of the Guardians (despite his argument that Magenta, Ethan and Zach didn't use their powers in hero work and yet were an essential part of the operation) and Will didn't want him to carry on working at the fire department (despite his argument that he was still a trained firefighter even if he wasn't fireproof anymore).

He lost both of those cases, however the biggest dispute was over the fear that he was in danger of reprisal attacks from the remnants of the Battle family if they found out he was vulnerable and powerless. Ethan's solution for that did not go down very well either.

"Let me get this. You want me to fake my own death – or, at least, my alter ego's – because you think the bad guys want to kill me?"

Ethan squirmed a bit under his narrowed gaze. "Well, if they think Knight-Fire is dead, they won't be after him, right?"

"And who is 'they', anyway? I thought we cleaned them out."

Will answered, "Well, we definitely decapitated them, but it only takes one bitter wife or ambitious underling to cause a world of damage."

"Plus we got some pretty colorful threats from the Battle boys themselves while we were apprehending them," Kate reminded him.

"I wouldn't take that too personally," remarked Zach, "Super villains say that sort of thing all the time."

"Zach, you know that 'no-labeling' thing I keep going on about?" said Layla. "It applies to super villains too, you know. So _I_ think we should take the threats seriously."

"Look, I'm not asking you to change your name and move to another town," Will tried to reason with his friend. "We're just going to say that _Knight-Fire_ is dead. You can still be Warren Peace."

"A name which, incidentally, is well-known by the Battle family," Warren pointed out.

"Not necessarily," Maj spoke up. "The younger generation and lower order family members might not be all that clued up."

Warren shot her a look that clearly indicated his doubts about that.

"But if they hear that Knight-Fire is dead they won't go searching for Warren Peace," Ethan explained.

"Either way, it's not like they're the only danger we're worried about," Layla said gently. "You've made a lot of enemies in the super villain circles, and if word got out that you're vulnerable…"

She left the end of her sentence hanging and he turned to her with a less than impressed expression. "So. You're also in favor of this _very bad idea_?"

Layla countered with a question of her own. "Why are you so strongly against this?"

"Why do you think?!" he snapped.

"If I knew I wouldn't be asking," she replied calmly.

He sighed heavily and lowered his eyes. "Because that would make it final," he said softly, not looking at any of them. "It would mean that we're pretty much accepting that I'm not going to get my powers back, ever."

The team shared anxious glances and Will took a deep breath.

"No, it doesn't mean that at all. It's just a cover story, like so many others we've used all these years."

"And, dude, if you get your powers back, think what an awesome comeback you'd have if everyone thinks you're dead!" Zach was trying very hard to help, but all he got was a scowl from Warren.

Layla turned to the others. "Could we have a moment, please?"

They obediently trooped out of the ward and waited at the observation window. Will wasn't sure what she was saying to him, but he privately suspected that she might be reminding him how _he_ had felt when she had thrown herself into the line of fire (literally) with Arson the previous year.

Whatever it was, she seemed to be getting through to him, because he grimly nodded, and Layla turned to the observation room with a sad smile.

"Call Elizabeth," said Will.

* * *

Elizabeth read through the rest of her article, which was largely a tribute to Knight-Fire along with a few vague details of what had happened at the Battle family HQ, and then got up from her desk to deliver it to her editor. This would be an unspeakable blow for Warren, to lose his powers. She'd had a useless power all her life and she'd come to accept that, but for him who had been so powerful, it would be really difficult. 

More than that, saving people was his _life_, both in hero work and in his cover job. It would be agonizing for him to just be an ordinary citizen, and watch his wife and friends go out and face all sorts of dangers … and not be able to help.

* * *

Warren spent another week in hospital while his body got used to thermoregulation at its new temperature. He eagerly read through an encyclopedia of heroes that Ethan had lent him because he wanted to look up superheroes and villains who had lost their powers for various reasons. Many of them had regained their powers, but some hadn't. There didn't appear to be much of a hard and fast rule. 

Not that he really deserved to, as far as he was concerned. He'd had plenty of time in the iso ward to regret some of his questionable thinking recently, the most obvious issue being his obsession with stopping Hellfire even if it meant sacrificing his own cousin. Fortunately it hadn't come to that, but he couldn't believe he'd gone so far as to actually _think_ it.

And, of course, there was the memory of the look of shock on Stronghold's face when he had threatened to burn the City. Although, if you looked at the big picture, one city was nothing compared to the nationwide and even global devastation that a Battle family fire elemental could bring about.

But still that wasn't an excuse. He'd been walking a fine line lately, it seemed, and maybe he had been closer to going over the edge then he'd like to think.

No, he was pretty sure he didn't deserve his powers back.

* * *

Nicola entered the isolation room cautiously. Her cousin was not known for good temper at the moment, understandably, and she'd been told that he generally preferred to be alone lately, but this was something she had to do. 

Warren was busy reading a sheaf of tributes and condolences that the Guardians had received from various public figures and the general populace, which Magenta and Kate had collected together for him. He smiled sadly at something he read and Nicola wondered if this activity was possibly making things worse by reminding him of how much he'd lost.

Maybe now wasn't a good time. She was just about to leave when he looked up and gave her a slight nod in greeting.

"I guess you never find out how many people like you until you're dead," he remarked dryly.

Nicola smiled slightly, knowing what he meant. It hadn't taken her long to work out that Knight-Fire was not exactly the people's hero like Eagle was. While the public treated him with due respect, he didn't have the Strongholds' kind of popularity. So, come to think about it, maybe it was a good thing for him to find out how much people _did_ like him.

She decided to plunge straight into the reason for her visit. "I'm sorry, Warren." He raised his eyebrows in query, and she forged on. "Well, it's my fault you lost your powers. It all happened because you were rescuing me."

"No, it was something we had to do anyway."

"Yeah, but it might have turned out differently if I hadn't been there. I feel bad."

"Nothing for _you_ to feel bad about," he replied darkly.

"What do you mean?" she asked, confused. "What do _you_ have on _your_ conscience?"

Warren sighed. "I don't know whether I should tell you this, but when Hellfire had you as his hostage, I was more concerned about preventing him from achieving his goal than about you and your safety. I'm sorry."

Nicola took a moment to digest that. "Well, from what I've seen of those guys," she said after a while, "I wouldn't want them to have your kind of power … uh, what you had," she amended a bit guiltily and went on slowly, "So I suppose it's a case of sacrificing one person for the greater good and all that."

"The ends still don't justify the means," he answered heavily. "But thanks for your understanding. It's a really mature attitude." She gave a slight smile. "Of course, it's one thing to be philosophical about sacrificing yourself; it's completely different when it's someone else's life you're gambling with. So I reckon I probably got what I deserve."

"No, you didn't. I wish you didn't think that, and so do the others."

"Did they put you up to this?" he asked suspiciously.

"No, but I've heard them talking. They're really worried about you, Layla especially. She was so scared you wouldn't agree to faking your alter ego's death and that it might end up being for real."

"I know," he said quietly.

She leant over and kissed him on the cheek, and turned to go.

"Hey," he called her back. She looked around to see him take something out of his bedside drawer which he handed to her. "I don't have much use for it."

It was his lighter.

She smiled a bit awkwardly, not sure what to say. He acknowledged it with a small nod, and she left the iso room quickly.

Outside, she took a closer look at the lighter. It was black and embossed with a phoenix. Running her fingers over the symbol, she mused over how often Warren seemed to be associated with that mythical bird.

The big question was, how literal was that association?

* * *

As the first few weeks out of hospital went by, Warren was becoming more and more positive he had a shadow … or, more accurately, three shadows in rotation. He wasn't sure whether or not to be ticked off that Stronghold had assigned some undercover kids from Under The Radar to baby-sit him. If nothing else, shouldn't they be doing something useful? 

So one morning he went down to the end of the street to get the morning's paper from the 'newspaper vendor' and find out exactly what they thought they were doing.

After waiting for someone to buy their paper and then checking that the coast was clear, Warren handed over the money and quietly gave the first part of the password, "To prevent war…"

"…The galaxy is on Orion's belt," finished the agent, giving him the paper which he opened and started to 'read', leaning against the news kiosk.

"New on the job, huh?"

"No, sir. Only the three most senior operatives were trusted with your case."

Warren shot him a sidelong glance and then went back to apparently reading his paper. "Don't you people have someone important to look after?"

"You _are_ important, sir. Orders come from the top."

Ah, so this was the NCS's doing, not Stronghold.

"Must be really boring for you though."

"No, sir. It's an honor."

Warren looked at him suspiciously, but the young agent appeared entirely sincere.

"You need to get out more, kid," he said gruffly as he folded up his paper and walked off, but he couldn't help feeling touched even though there was no way he'd show it. That encounter affected him more than he realized, but his friends could tell from the way he stopped snapping at anyone who tried to help him.

But the effects didn't last long. As weeks turned into months and there was no sign of his powers returning, he began to seriously lose hope. He couldn't help wondering if maybe it had been a false hope to begin with, and his fervent belief that it was what he deserved didn't actually help much either.

Also, it was getting into winter and Warren was feeling the cold badly. He'd always hated being cold, and not just because of the effect on his powers, but now it was almost unbearable. During the winter months he practically went into hibernation, and the cold, together with his fading hope, caused him to sink into depression. When the weather started to warm up again, his spirits rose a bit but not much.

Feeling the cold wasn't his only problem. Every time he got a paper cut or got too close to a flame, it reminded him that he was no longer invulnerable. Every time Layla and the others went off to save the day somewhere, it reminded him that he was no longer part of the team. And he worried about them way too much, although he kept that to himself.

His concern for them was nothing compared to how much they worried about him. There wasn't anything they could do to make up for the fact that he'd lost his purpose in life. Will often wondered if he'd made a mistake; that his desperation to protect Warren's life had rendered that life meaningless.

But until they knew for sure that Warren would be safe – which may never happen – he just wasn't prepared to take the risk. Maybe it was selfish, but he couldn't help it. Warren just meant too much to all of them.

* * *

Warren glanced up – briefly – from his book as Layla came in the front door. "How did it go?" 

"Very easy. And a bit strange, actually."

"Why?" he asked without much real interest. "Who was the mystery super villain?"

"That's the strange part." He looked up to see her pulling a confused face as she hung up her coat. "It was Brainwave," she said, naming one of the greatest criminal masterminds of the 20th century.

Warren was curious despite himself. "I thought he retired 20 years ago. Plus, trying to knock over a bank in the suburbs of Maxville? That's kid's stuff to him."

"Exactly what Ethan said," Layla agreed. She poured herself a glass of iced tea and sat down next to him.

"Could have been some sort of set-up."

"Like a trap? It could have been meant to be, but we're all fine and we weren't even in much danger. If he was masterminding something big, he wouldn't have let himself get caught."

"Maybe he's slowing down in his old age," Warren commented, and went back to his book.

"By the way, we're all going for a hike in the botanical gardens on Saturday. Want to come?"

"Not really."

"Why did I even ask?" she murmured to herself, which he ignored. On some level he knew he was being difficult, not to mention a recluse, but he couldn't bring himself out of it. His friends tried really hard, but he just wasn't ready yet.

He was distracted from his introspection by Layla standing up and tripping over the edge of the coffee table. Her glass, which she was still holding, broke between her hand and the carpet as she landed quite hard on her hands and knees.

Warren was on his feet and kneeling next to her in seconds. "Are you okay?" he asked with a gentle hand on her arm.

"Yeah, I'm fine, just a little clumsy it seems," she replied with a forced laugh, starting to get to her feet. "I'll clean that up."

"And your hand?"

She turned it over and they could both see that her palm had a number of cuts that were beginning to well up with blood. There were also some pieces of glass stuck in her skin. She looked quite surprised that it was so bad.

"You didn't notice that it hurt?" Warren asked, confused.

"Uh, delayed reaction and shock and all that, I guess."

She began to pull the pieces of glass out of her hand, making him wince in sympathy. "Want me to help with that?"

"Relax, I can do it myself."

Now suspicion took over from concern. She who couldn't bring herself to tweeze her own eyebrows was now pulling glass shards out of her palm without even flinching.

"Why aren't you feeling any pain?"

She paused, but didn't look at him. "I am," she replied after a moment, removing the last piece of glass with a pretty believable grimace.

But Warren wasn't convinced. There was definitely something … strange going on.


	11. Chapter 10: Hypnotic

_**Disclaimer: **I do not own Sky High or its characters, settings etc, all of which belong to Disney. Original characters and concepts belong to me._

_A/N:** I feel I have to give credit to a genius called** _**IndeMaat _who worked out a way around the Document Manager glitch... _**

**Chapter 10: Hypnotic **

Warren just looked after her for a few long moments as she went to the bathroom to wash off the blood. As she was wrapping her palm in a bandage he walked over and leant against the doorframe.

"Ethan should probably look at that, you know," he said. He needed to get their resident genius on the case.

"Why?" she asked, not even looking up as she fastened the bandage with a safety pin. "It's not like there's anything seriously wrong with me."

"Apart from the fact that you've suddenly stopped feeling pain."

Layla looked at him sharply and narrowed her eyes. "I think it's _you_ Ethan needs to look at," she replied.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"I mean I think you've finally lost it, Warren."

"_I've_ lost it? _You_ were the one practically performing surgery on yourself without anesthetic!"

She was perfectly calm. "I don't know what you thought you saw, but you didn't."

Warren sighed. Okay, maybe he should pretend to cooperate – anything to give Ethan a chance to find out what was going on with her.

"Fine. I'll go see Ethan, but you're coming too."

For a moment she seemed to think that over, and then she agreed.

* * *

"Ethan, Warren thinks he's seeing things!" Layla announced to Ethan, Will and Zach almost as soon as they were in earshot. The other two happened to be chatting with Ethan in the corridor outside his office on Level 4a. Fortunately, at this time in the evening, most of the doctors in that section had left for the day. 

"Actually, it's Layla who thinks that," corrected Warren. "Me, I _know_ there's something odd going on."

Ethan looked between the two of them uncertainly. "Listen, if you guys are having some sort of issues, I don't actually want to hear about it. I am not your shrink."

"You don't need to be a shrink to see that something's suddenly stopped her from feeling pain," growled Warren.

"How ridiculous is that?" said Layla lightly, pulling a face.

"She cut her hand, and then pulled the bits of glass out and she didn't even flinch."

"Of course I did! It hurt horribly. I don't know what his case is."

Will, Ethan and Zach were extremely confused. They had no idea who to believe.

After a calculating glance at Warren, Layla evidently decided to play her trump card. "Look, given recent history, which one of us is the more mentally stable and reliable source of information?"

Warren shot her a glance. He couldn't really blame them if they sided with her considering he _hadn't_ exactly been too emotionally stable lately.

It was time for more drastic measures. In one swift movement he twisted her arm behind her back and turned her slightly so that they could see what he was doing. Before anyone could react to his apparently unwarranted violent behavior, he unclasped the safety pin from her bandaged hand and gently pushed the point into the back of her neck, just enough to cause pain. The others could clearly see that Layla, busy struggling in Warren's grip and unable to see what he was doing behind her, made absolutely no reaction to the pin prick.

The three guys just stared blankly, and for a moment Warren wondered if they were also affected by the same thing as Layla was. But then Will seemed to recover from his surprise enough to fish a neutralizer out of his pocket and slap it around her wrist.

"Just in case," he said apologetically as she looked at him in dismay, and then he turned to Ethan, "Okay, what's going on here?"

"It's like she's been hypnotized or something!" exclaimed Zach.

"Hypnotized?" repeated Warren doubtfully.

"Yeah, I saw it on TV once. They hypnotized this lady and they could stick needles in her and she wouldn't feel a thing. We just need to get her to snap out of it." He walked over to Layla who was still struggling but Warren wasn't letting her go. Zach tried snapping his fingers, clapping his hands and telling her to 'Wake up when I count to three', while she just regarded him with an expression of amused tolerance.

"Thanks for trying, Zach, but there's nothing wrong with me. Apart from the fact that my husband," and she gave another tug on her captive arm, "has recently gone psycho."

Ethan had been watching all of this in silence. He knew for sure that having her arm twisted like that should be hurting her a lot, but she appeared to be more annoyed about the fact that she was captive than showing any sign of pain.

Warren was right. There was something wrong here.

"Layla," he started gently, "How about we go run some tests and then we can see why you – "

"Why I what?" she cut in defensively. "_I'm_ not the one who needs to be examined; _I'm _perfectly fine! I can't believe you people are all taking sides against me! This is so sexist, you pigs!"

"So much for being the more stable one," commented Warren.

Ethan could see that he was going to have to try a more subtle approach. "Look at it this way: we do some tests and then we can prove to Warren beyond a doubt that there's nothing wrong with you. How does that sound?"

She took a moment to think about that and then nodded. Warren released her arm and she walked off beside Ethan without even a backwards glance.

* * *

Déjà vu, thought Will, standing at the observation window. Only this time it was Layla in the isolation ward, not Warren, although the ex-pyro was in there too by his own choice. She was lying on the bed with a drip, hooked up to an EEG and heart monitor, and her biometrics had been deleted from the neutralizer around her wrist so that she couldn't remove it herself. 

For the past hour while her test results were being analyzed, she had been pleading pathetically with Warren to let her out because there was nothing wrong with her. Apparently unmoved by her emotional appeal, he kept trying to draw her into meaningful conversation in the hope that she might say something that would give them a clue what was going on.

When the results were ready, Ethan reported that everything was perfectly normal and there was no sign of any sort of drug or foreign substance in her system. As far as he could see, there wasn't any medical reason for her condition.

Which meant that the floor was open for some of the more bizarre suggestions.

"Well, she's obviously not a shape-shifter or she would have reverted to herself when she was neutralized," Kate was thinking out loud. She and Magenta had joined the others outside the iso room as soon as they heard something was wrong. Layla's mom was also on her way to the hospital.

"Evil twin?" suggested Maj. "Clone?"

"Mind-controlling alien parasite?" put in Zach.

"No, no and _no_," responded Ethan to their contributions in turn. "If she was a twin or a clone she'd have Layla's DNA but not her fingerprints, so this is definitely the real Layla. And an alien parasite would have shown up on the MRI."

"Could Brainwave have done something to her?" asked Will, grabbing at straws.

"Not unless he's suddenly developed a new power," Ethan answered, "And given that the man is pushing 80, I doubt it."

They all knew that Brainwave's power was the ability to see the weakness in any situation or person. Apart from giving him a lot of insight into how to defeat his enemies, it had nothing to do with affecting anyone mentally.

"Still, there's a good chance it was something that happened during that mission today," said Magenta thoughtfully. "I'll go through the bank's security footage. Maybe someone got to her somehow."

"I'll come too," offered Kate. "That new image enhancing software I just got might help."

The two of them left to work on that as Layla's mother arrived, and Ethan escorted her into the isolation room. As soon as she saw her mom, Layla launched into a pitiful appeal about how her friends thought she was crazy and they wouldn't believe her even though they couldn't find anything medically wrong with her.

"Are you sure she's not herself?" asked her mother anxiously.

Ethan took a sterilized pin from his equipment tray and pricked his patient in the back of her neck. Her reaction was obviously faked as she tried to guess, unsuccessfully, when the jab would be.

"Isn't that a rather barbaric way of finding out?" It seemed Mrs. Williams was trying not to think about the larger issue of what was wrong with her daughter.

"I'm sorry, Mrs. Williams," Ethan apologized sadly, "But that's the only way I have to prove it considering we can't trust anything she says."

"What do you mean, you can't trust anything I say?!" Layla was getting hysterical now. "I thought you people were my friends and now you're turning my own family against me! I hate you all!"

Ethan took a syringe and injected a sedative into her drip. When she saw what he was doing, she tried to pull the IV out of her arm, apparently afraid of what he might be drugging her with. Warren, who had been lurking on the fringe of this conversation, stepped forward and caught her hands in time. Her mom backed out of the room, knowing that there was nothing she could do to help.

Warren and Ethan shared a glance as Layla continued to rant and struggle, and the doctor nodded reluctantly. It was for her own good so that she wouldn't hurt herself, they told themselves as they restrained her to the bed with Velcro cuffs. After a few more minutes of complaining, Layla's words started to slur and then finally she passed out.

* * *

"Well, there's good news and bad news," announced Magenta as Ethan came out of the iso room.

Will turned from the observation window. "Which do I want to hear first?" he asked with a sigh.

"Well, the good news is, we think we know what happened and who did it," replied Kate, showing him and Ethan two blown-up images from the security camera footage. One showed a woman with her hand on Layla's arm, and the other, which was even further enlarged, was a close-up of the woman's fingers. There was a spike protruding from the ring on her middle finger into Layla's wrist through her glove, evidently administering some sort of injection.

"So what's the bad news?" asked Will looking closely at the images.

"The problem is that there's very little info available on her," explained Maj. "All I can tell you is her name is Hypnotic and she's a transmutator."

"We have no idea what she's done to Layla or how to reverse it," said Kate.

"The NCS private file on her is heavily encoded, so it'll take longer than usual to crack." Magenta turned to Ethan, "Unless you know something?"

"I don't know much about her," he replied, looking at the image, "But I know someone who might."

* * *

"Yeah, that's definitely Hypnotic."

Denise Walker, a.k.a. The Alchemistress, barely had to look at the images before giving her opinion to the team assembled at the observation window.

"So I was right," stated Zach, "Layla _was_ hypnotized to not feel pain."

"No pain? I've never heard of her doing that before." She frowned over that for a moment, and then continued, "Anyhow, it's not hypnosis actually; she's just made use of the popular misconception that hypnotizing people is a form of brainwashing. She's a transmutator, but very specialized because the only substance she can create is a powerful mind control compound."

"But there's no sign of any drugs in Layla's blood test," objected Ethan.

"That's because it doesn't travel by the bloodstream; it's a neurotransmitter imposter." They all looked at her blankly (apart from Ethan, of course) so she tried to explain, "It replaces the chemicals in the gaps between nerve cells." They still looked a bit confused, but fortunately they didn't really need to understand the neuropsychology behind it, so she went on with her explanation, "It spreads through the neural network until it reaches the brain in less than a second, at which point Hypnotic gives the person her instructions. Thereafter, any choice they make is weighed up against this programming. You may have noticed that Layla takes a little longer than usual to make a decision."

Will asked, "Won't the drug just wear off?"

"No, it self-replicates at the synapses between the neurons," she replied and paused before delivering the worst part, "And there's no antidote."

"Then make one up!" snapped Warren impatiently. He turned on his heel and strode back into the iso room.

Denise raised an eyebrow at this, but Will almost smiled. He had to admit that snappy Warren was a lot better than the apathetic Warren they'd been seeing for the past few months. At least this was some sort of emotion, even if it was negative. It was good to see him get some of his fire back, no pun intended.

He shook himself out of his reverie to focus on the current issue. "This Hypnotic is really dangerous. I mean, she could walk right into the President's office and just take over!"

"Yeah," agreed Denise, "But fortunately she's not that ambitious. Or at least she's never shown any sign."

Kate asked, "How do you know so much about her?"

"I did my doctorate on transmutation."

That gave Ethan an idea. "Yeah, you're a transmutator too – can't you just create an antidote from something?"

"If I could, I would have already," she answered. "But, unfortunately, my power works only on metals."

At that point they all heard a distinct _'Ow'_ from the isolation room.

* * *

Layla was starting to stir as Warren walked in, and he prepared himself for another round of begging and pleading, and probably a tirade about the fact that she was restrained. It was the least he could do, he supposed, considering how much she'd put up with from him the past 6 months. At least now he had some idea of what was causing her to act like this.

" Warren?" she said in a small confused voice. She flexed her injured hand and winced, and then found she couldn't lift her arms. "What happened? The last I remember we were at the bank facing off with Brainwave…?"

He decided to play along. "You were injected with a mind control drug."

She looked down at the restraints and then up at him with huge eyes. "Did I hurt someone?" she whispered in horror.

This was totally different to her behavior up to this point, and there was obviously a possibility it was another ploy to gain her freedom, but Warren couldn't help hoping that it was genuine. Time for the unfortunately 'barbaric' litmus test. He palmed the pin from the equipment tray and under the pretense of taking her hand, jabbed the point into her palm.

"Ow!"

He smiled slightly. "Welcome back."

She wasn't quite as pleased as he was, understandably. "What was that for?" she demanded, perplexed.

Ethan came into the room, followed by Denise and the others. "I thought you said it wouldn't wear off," he remarked as Layla smiled a bit uncertainly at them all.

"It doesn't normally," replied Denise. "Have you been giving her any other drugs or anything?"

"Just a normal sedative," Ethan answered, showing her the next syringe he had already prepared.

At that point Layla blinked slowly a couple of times as if she was having trouble staying awake, and then she looked around the room, seeming even more confused. She gave Warren and Ethan a scowl, and then raised her eyebrows at Denise.

"When did you get here?" she asked.

"Looks like Mr. Hyde is back," remarked Warren.

* * *

It appeared that the sedative only had a temporary effect on Hypnotic's drug, but at least they now had a starting point. It would be rather difficult doing lab tests considering there was no trace of it in her bloodstream for them to work with, but Kate had a brainwave and fetched Layla's glove from the Guardians' headquarters. It hadn't been washed yet, so Ethan was able to find a tiny spot of residue where Hypnotic had injected her, and it was enough of a sample to work with.

After a long 48 hours of experimenting with sedatives and struggling to find the mix that was strong enough to neutralize the mind controlling drug but wouldn't cause any sort of damage to the nervous system, the two geniuses finally came up with an antidote.

By mid-afternoon on Friday, the Guardians plus Denise were sitting around in their headquarters, discussing what the super villainess was up to. Layla was herself again with no memory of the past two days except for the few minutes when the sedative had briefly blocked the effects of the drug. All that lingered was a vague feeling that they were all supposed to go somewhere.

"But if it was something as straightforward as a sedative, surely someone would have come up with an antidote by now?" she asked when they'd finished describing what had happened during the time she'd 'missed'.

"Well, apparently when she's finished with a 'hypnotized' minion, she generally kills them and disposes of the body so that no one can learn anything about her drug from an autopsy," explained Ethan.

Denise added, "Also, she doesn't tend to allow her victims out into public, and when she does, they act so normal that no one has any reason to give them a sedative."

"Which brings us back to the question of why did she let Layla go?" Will said. "What 'mission' did Hypnotic program her to do?"

They all looked at each other, at a loss for any suggestions.

"Don't look at me, I can't remember a thing," said Layla.

"Hypnotic could be trying to break up our group," Kate suggested.

"But the only person Layla was really playing divide-and-conquer with was me," Warren pointed out, "And that was probably because I was a threat to her little secret. After that she was just fighting with everyone without trying to get any of us on her side."

Zach had a sudden dose of inspiration. "The hike tomorrow, dude! She suggested that on the way back from the bank."

"That's it!" Layla agreed excitedly. "That explains my vague feeling about going somewhere. My purpose in her plan was obviously to lead the rest of you to her."

"For what reason?" argued Denise. "This isn't her usual M.O. at all."

Will wasn't too concerned. "We'll only find that out when we get there," he shrugged.

"Wait a minute, man," Zach objected. "You're not actually intending to walk right into her hands, are you?"

Ethan replied, "I don't see why we shouldn't. The antidote will protect us from her powers."

"What, us as well?" Magenta indicated herself, Ethan and Zach.

"I seem to remember Layla wanting _all_ of us to go, so yeah, you guys too," Kate said.

"I can't say I like the idea of you all going in without anyone left to watch your backs," remarked Warren.

"But if we don't all go, Hypnotic will know we've worked out her plan," Will reasoned. "We have to act like we're just going on a hike."

Layla added, "And then we'll need to act like we're under her power, at least until we find out what she's up to."

"Actually, _you'll_ need to act like you're under her power the whole time," Denise pointed out.

* * *

Layla was watching the security footage of herself from the bank and the hospital from the past two days to get an idea of how she would need to act when she had to pretend to still be 'hypnotized'. When she got to the part where Warren twisted her arm and pricked her neck with the safety pin, she couldn't help saying 'Ow' out loud.

"Sorry."

She turned around to see him standing just inside the door, looking a bit uncertain.

"Don't be." Stopping the tape, she smiled reassuringly and invited him to sit next to her with a gesture. "You did what you had to do to prove there was something wrong. Imagine if you hadn't."

_Imagine if you'd just avoided the problem and retreated into your shell like you've been doing for the past six months_, she thought. He sat down next to her and slid his arm around her shoulders. This was the first time he'd initiated that sort of affectionate contact in ages, and in her surprise it took her a few moments to remember what she'd been saying.

"I would be leading everyone straight into her trap," she carried on when she'd managed to gather her thoughts. "We'd have no way to stop her and we wouldn't even _know_ we needed to stop her because we'd be, well, 'hypnotized'."

"Mm, things could've been a little tricky if she had Stronghold under her power."

"Yeah. A _lot_ tricky," Layla replied, snuggling up to him as she started the tape again.

Warren responded by kissing the top of her head, and she smiled, thinking how ironic it was that their relationship was often aided by super villains. It was thanks to Royal Pain that they got to be friends in the first place, thanks to Weatherman that they got together, thanks to Arson that they got engaged … and now it was thanks to Hypnotic that she was getting him back from one of his worst enemies … himself.


	12. Chapter 11: From the Ashes

**_Disclaimer: _**_I do not own Sky High or its characters, settings etc, all of which belong to Disney. Original characters and concepts belong to me._

**Chapter 11: From the Ashes **

"I hate to be the cynic all the time," said Magenta, "But how do we know that the antidote will work on the rest of us the same as it did on Layla?"

It was early on Saturday morning and they'd all had their antidote injections. They were busy packing their gear for the 'hike', which included their aviator sunglasses, neutralizing bracelets, spare syringes of the antidote and plenty of Twinkies for Zach.

Ethan and Denise shared a glance. "We don't," Ethan admitted. "Ultimately we'll only know for sure when she actually tries to control us."

"But there's no reason why it shouldn't work perfectly," Denise reassured them.

"Layla?" Kate suddenly noticed that the redhead had stopped in the middle of packing her backpack and was just staring at the handful of neutralizing bracelets in her hand.

Warren squeezed her shoulder. "Hey, you still with us?"

She turned to him with a look of amazement on her face. "I've just remembered what she programmed me to do!"

"No need to sound so happy about it, man," remarked Zach uncertainly.

"No, this is great," she replied excitedly. "It means that I might be able to play my part in this plan convincingly enough to not give the whole thing away."

The others exchanged glances, not too sure that it was such a good thing that she was remembering something from the time she was under Hypnotic's power. They couldn't help being wondering if it was maybe a sign that the antidote wasn't fully working.

Layla continued, concentrating as she thought out loud. "At some sort of signal I'm supposed to neutralize all of you so that she can inject you with her drug."

"All five of us at the same time?" asked Will doubtfully.

"Well, I'd suggest Will first and the rest of us pretty soon after," offered Kate.

"I think we can assume that she wants us at the botanical gardens so as to give Layla plenty of ammunition," said Ethan.

"Yeah, that makes sense," Layla agreed. "So I guess you'll just have to play along when I string you up in vines or something."

"Without being too obvious about it," commented Warren.

"Everybody packed?" asked Zach cheerfully from next to the elevator, and then continued without waiting for a response as he pressed the 'up' button to get to the roof where the van was parked, "Cool, then let's go."

"Down, Zach," Will corrected him. "We're not going in the van."

"Why not?"

"Because that would be a giveaway that we know this isn't just a hike, idiot!" said Magenta as she reached past him to hit the 'down' button.

When they left, the headquarters was suddenly very quiet. Warren and Denise shared an amused glance at their friends' antics and then turned their attention to Zach's monitors. The gang got downstairs and activated their sunglasses' cameras as they left the building, keeping up the casual chatter as they got into Will's SUV and drove off. There wouldn't be much to watch until they got to the botanical gardens, and the two of them sat in a reasonably comfortable silence.

Warren wondered how things were going with her and Ethan, but he didn't really feel comfortable with asking such a personal question. It wasn't just that he didn't know her that well; it was the same with the others these days, even Layla to a certain extent. He suddenly realized how much he had let slide during his self-imposed exile, and how much his relationships had suffered for it. That was something he would really need to work on.

In the meantime, he opted for a more straightforward topic of conversation. "Thanks for helping with the antidote for Layla."

Denise smiled. "Well, part of my doctorate was on Hypnotic, but it was mostly theoretical. This was the first time I had a chance to study her compound first-hand _and_ work on devising an antidote, which I did attempt when I was studying, however without the serendipitous discovery of the effects of the sedative I had no starting point."

"Uh, right." Warren wasn't entirely certain how to respond to that. His eyes flicked over to the TV screen next to Zach's monitors which was, for obvious reasons, permanently tuned to Maxville News 24, where a reporter stood in front of a raging fire in the downtown area. There were firefighters behind her struggling to contain the blaze, but the wind was spreading it awfully quickly between the closely packed apartment blocks and even across the narrow streets.

Forcefully reminding himself that such crises were no longer his personal concern, Warren turned his attention from the news report back to Denise and the current issue. "So, where does Brainwave fit into all of this?" he asked. "Hired minion or partner in crime?"

" 'Hypnotized' minion, more like it," Denise replied. "Obviously his purpose was to create the diversion of the bank robbery, and she probably also had him use his powers to tell her that Layla would be the weakest link." Warren opened his mouth to defend his wife, but she raised a placating hand. "Just in the sense that she'd be the easiest one to inject with her formula."

She had a point. Both Will and Kate had needed to be neutralized to take their antidote injections that morning, so Layla would have been a much easier target for Hypnotic at the bank.

"Okay, so if Brainwave was her pet, it was pretty careless of her to let him get busted."

Denise looked thoughtful. "Not necessarily. He was no longer useful at that point, which would make him entirely expendable. And if she's trying to gather minions or something, that old guy is probably not much of an asset."

"Yeah," responded Warren vaguely, distracted by the news report again. He couldn't help feeling that almost-forgotten urge to save the world, and it was becoming quite irresistible.

Completely irresistible, in fact.

"Where are you going?" Denise asked in surprise as he got up and put on his jacket.

Warren jerked a thumb at the TV report. "I can't just sit and do nothing when there's something I can do to help. Even without my powers, I'm still a fully qualified firefighter."

"Yeah, but your work experience involves being immune to fire."

"Don't worry, I'm kinda getting used to being vulnerable," he replied darkly.

"At least wear your Kevlar uniform."

Warren shrugged. "All my clothes are fireproof."

"Why?" asked Denise, her scientific curiosity in gear as always. "I always thought that a pyro's powers protected their clothes, in the same the way as a shapeshifter's transform with them."

"Only while the pyro is wearing them."

She sighed. "You really shouldn't be doing this, you know. You could get seriously hurt."

"What are you, my mother?" he said with a mock scowl, but still he dug out the gloves from his uniform and switched his usual leather jacket for his long duster coat. "Happy now?"

Denise didn't think that made much difference. "Not really." He shrugged and turned to go. "Will's going to have a fit when he hears about this!" she called after him.

"So for the sake of his health and mine, let's not tell him about it, okay?" he replied as he entered the elevator.

Turning back to the monitors, Denise just sighed again and wondered quite how she was going to explain this to Will.

* * *

As Warren arrived at the fire scene, he could see that the wind had recently changed direction, causing the flames to spread on a new course. The situation was getting worse all the time, and there were still people trapped in the first buildings to catch alight. The firefighters were completely unable to keep up; on the upside, however, that meant Warren was able to slip into the nearest burning building unnoticed in the general chaos. 

There was the sound of a scream from upstairs and a burning beam fell just behind where Warren was standing in the lobby. A stab of panic suddenly hit him as he realized that he was entirely surrounded by flames. His stomach clenched and he could feel his heart racing as he struggled to catch his breath.

He couldn't believe it. For the first time in his life, Warren Peace was afraid of fire.

* * *

"Totally bogus," commented Zach as they all heard an obviously fake bird call. It was mid-morning and they had reached a less popular section of the botanical gardens. 

Layla stiffened. Somehow she knew that was the signal from Hypnotic she was supposed to be reacting to. As the others traded quips about the strange birdlife in the gardens, she looked around surreptitiously.

As Ethan had suspected, Hypnotic obviously knew exactly who she was dealing with when she set up this rendezvous point. There were a number of large thorny rosebushes lining their path, perfect for 'ammunition'. Will and Ethan were walking just ahead of her, Kate was to her left and Zach and Maj were behind.

It was showtime. Will and Ethan would have to be first; Will for obvious reasons, and Ethan because he could melt and escape easily. The others she could neutralize after immobilizing them. After taking a deep breath to calm her nerves, Layla caught up with the two guys ahead and asked Will what the time was. Predictably, they both looked at their watches, even though Ethan hadn't been asked, and she slapped a neutralizer around each of their wrists.

With a silent apology to her teammates for the pain she was about to inflict, Layla took control of the rose bushes and bound each of her friends to the bush nearest them, trying not to hurt them too much with the thorns. In a moment she had Kate, Maj and Zach neutralized as well. Of course, if this had been a real combat situation, they would never have allowed themselves to be captured like this. She hoped that Hypnotic didn't suspect it was too easy.

"Very good, Layla," said the super villainess in question, appearing from behind a nearby hedge. She was about 10 to 15 years older than them, with a face that wouldn't particularly stand out in the crowd. Then again, considering that her approach seemed to involve having others do her dirty work while she lurked unnoticed in the shadows, her unremarkable appearance was probably not such a bad thing, possibly even an asset.

Layla smiled stiffly, uncertain how to respond as if she was 'hypnotized'. Fortunately, Hypnotic turned her attention to the rest of the group. She walked up to each of them in turn and injected them using the same spiked ring as she had on Layla.

When she was finished she turned to them all, and announced, "You will obey me. You will not feel pain, you will have no fear for your own life while under my control. You will not allow anyone to know I am controlling you and you will not allow anything to hinder my plan."

Layla glanced around at her friends. They were certainly giving a good impression of being 'hypnotized'.

She could only hope that it was merely an act.

* * *

For a few moments Warren concentrated on taking several deep breaths and reminding himself that his clothing was entirely flame retardant. That succeeded in pushing the panic down to a somewhat manageable level, but at least it was a start. 

There was another scream from above him in the building, which helped to force him into action. Picking his way carefully between crackling flames and sparks he moved as fast as he dared up the stairs to the second floor.

It wasn't hard to find the source of the screaming. A child of three or four was standing terrified on the landing, entirely surrounded by fire, giving a piercing shriek every time she could catch her breath. A few yards away of solid flames away, her mother was trying desperately to get to her but the father was holding her back, evidently terrified of losing his wife too. They were both coughing from the smoke and the woman was almost hysterical.

Warren had never hated losing his powers as much as at that moment.

Still, there was at least something he could do. If he could only pull himself together, that is.

He passed the child's parents who barely noticed him and then began to pick his way across the landing. The first few steps were quite easy-going and he managed to step around the flames, but then he came to a solid bank of fire barring his way. Panic warred with his so-called hero complex, as Layla had once described it, and every moment he hesitated the flames came closer and closer to the little girl.

It was time to be a real hero. Forcing down his fear, he stepped into the fire and quickly covered the rest of the distance to the trapped child. Strangely, the flames didn't feel as hot as he expected them to. When he reached the girl he took off his long coat and, picking her up, he wrapped her in it for the return trip through the fire. Even though she was protected by the Kevlar of his coat, he held her as high above the flames as he could until he reached her parents. The girl's mother just sobbed as she pulled her from her rescuer's arms into a tight embrace.

Putting his coat back on, Warren shepherded them down the stairs.

"I can't thank you enough, sir!" the woman sobbed. "You must be some kind of superhero!"

"No, ma'am. Just fireproof clothing." They had reached the bottom of the stairs by now, and Warren hesitated. "Do you know if there's anyone else still in the building?"

The woman shook her head as she coughed again, still clutching her daughter so hard the poor kid could barely breathe. Fortunately her husband seemed to notice this and gently loosened her grip as they carefully made their way across the lobby to the door. Warren kept an eye on them as he started back up the stairs to check the rest of the apartment block in case someone had collapsed from smoke inhalation, unable to call for help.

The rescued family were about half way to the door when something warned Warren to look up in time to see a burning beam falling towards them from high above. Without thinking, he automatically threw a fireball to knock the timber out of the way. The husband and wife jumped as the flaming debris landed near them and they hurried out of the building without a backwards glance.

Walking back down the stairs, Warren was breathing heavily as he quickly thought over what had just happened. Not only had he been able to create fire, but it was his pyro-psionic sense that had warned him that the burning timber was falling. He stood in the middle of the lobby and closed his eyes. As he concentrated, he could feel the fire in the building he was in, and then also the buildings on either side and then, with some more mental effort, the entire area. He could even sense that someone in the gathered crowd of rubberneckers was smoking a cigarette.

Well, not anymore. Warren smirked at the thought of how confused that person must be, and then turned his attention to the more serious issue of the raging fire. While he knew he could wipe it all out in one go, he decided it would probably be an idea to take it more gently and extinguish the flames in sections. Starting with the areas where he knew people were trapped, he methodically worked through the two and a half blocks of burning apartment blocks, quenching one building at a time.

By the time he was finished, the expected headache was pounding but he really didn't mind. Weird as that seemed, it was quite a relief – anything was better than the intense cold that had heralded losing his powers last time. Even the searing pain on his wrists and chest as his tattoos branded themselves onto his skin again was bearable. Definitely not pleasant, he thought, gritting his teeth, but in a strange way he welcomed it.

When it was over, he stayed sitting on the lobby floor where he had sunk in exhaustion, breathing heavily. He didn't need to check his hair to know that the red streaks were back as well. Tempting as it was to just stay there, he needed to get back to the Guardians headquarters to see how the others were doing. Now that he had his powers back, he might actually be able to help them.

Pushing himself up a little shakily, he made his way over to the door. One brief look outside made him pull back quickly, the sudden motion causing his head to throb even more, but he had to stay out of sight. The street was crawling with firefighters and policemen, all looking for the reason why the fire was suddenly extinguished. If he was going to make a quiet getaway, Warren needed to create a diversion.

He just couldn't resist the temptation to show off a little. After all, pyro-construction was his favorite.

* * *

Nobody in the crowd noticed a young man in a long black trench coat leave one of the blackened buildings, walk to his car and drive off. They were far too busy noticing the fiery phoenix hovering triumphantly in the air among the remaining wisps of smoke. 

Somewhere in the throng, among the murmurings about a bird or a plane, an ace investigative journalist couldn't help grinning as she snapped a few photos and hoped that Will would get to her with the official line in time for her deadline because this definitely belonged on the next day's front page.

Nearby, a 'newspaper seller' turned to an 'ice cream vendor' with a wry smile. "Guess he doesn't need us anymore."


	13. Chapter 12: Control Freak

_**Disclaimer: **__I do not own Sky High or its characters, settings etc, all of which belong to Disney. Original characters and concepts belong to me._

**Chapter 12: ****Control Freak**

When Hypnotic was finished with her list of commands, she turned to Layla. "Release them from their restraints and the neutralization."

"Actually, we can take off the neutralizers ourselves," chirped Zach, cheerfully giving away part of their plan.

Layla, Maj, Kate and Ethan turned to him in shock, but before they could react, Will removed his own neutralizer and broke out of the rosebush branches. He flew over to Layla, snapping the bracelet around her wrist instead and twisting her arm behind her back so that she couldn't reach it with her other hand.

He turned to Ethan, Magenta and Kate. "If you think you can remove your neutralizers, get out of your thickets and rescue her before I kill her, go ahead," he challenged them.

"You can stop pretending now, Will," Layla pleaded desperately in a low tone, even though she had little hope that this was an act.

"No, _you_ can stop pretending," he replied coldly. He dragged her over to where Zach was imprisoned and, using his other hand, he broke the thorny bushes to free him. "Remove their biometrics from the neutralizers," he instructed.

As Zach took his miniature screwdriver out of his back pocket and began his task, Hypnotic, who had been watching all of this with an unimpressed expression, demanded impatiently, "What are you doing?"

"Obeying your order to not allow anything to hinder your plan," Will responded. "This imposter has only been acting as if she's under your control. She and her little friends here," and he indicated Kate, Maj and Ethan, "have taken an antidote that makes them immune to your orders."

While he was talking, Layla used her free hand to fish in her pocket for her spare syringe of the antidote. She aimed the auto-injector at his arm, but he was no longer neutralized so the needle just broke when she tried to inject.

"Nice try, kid," he snapped, and held out her wrist to Zach who opened a panel on the neutralizer with his screwdriver and flicked some miniature switches. When he was finished, Will let her go, and she didn't even bother trying to take off the bracelet.

Maybe Warren had been right that it was a bad idea to go into this situation without backup. Much as she hated being the damsel in distress, a nice heroic rescue would be very welcome right now…

* * *

'_She and her little friends here have taken an antidote that makes them immune to your orders.' _

Denise just sat staring at the monitor in shock. How could the antidote have worked on some of them but not Will and Zach? If it was only Will then there was the possibility that the physiology of his super-strength might have played a role in…

She abruptly shook herself from her scientific reverie; this wasn't the time for that. Right now she needed to call for reinforcements, so she reached for the phone number for Will's parents which Zach had taped to the side of a monitor. But there was no answer, from their regular phone or their emergency cell phones. It seemed that the Commander and Jetstream were off on a distress call, so Denise left a message on their voicemail, hoping desperately they would get it soon.

As she put the phone down, she glanced at the TV news just in time to see a flame construct in the form of a phoenix hovering over a recently extinguished fire, and she smiled, knowing exactly what it meant. At least _something_ was going right.

Warren would probably be back soon, so it would be an idea to find out what went wrong with the antidote for Will and Zach. She went down one level in the elevator to the lower floor of the Guardians headquarters, and went into Ethan's lab.

Re-reading her and Ethan's research notes on his laptop, she took a flask of the antidote off the shelf and automatically swirled it to mix up the ingredients that had settled out while it was standing. Suddenly she realized what she was unconsciously doing and stopped reading to stare at the flask in her hand. She put it down quickly and grabbed the five syringes they had used for the antidote injections. Decanting a small amount of clean water into each one, she rinsed them carefully and poured the contents into five test tubes.

Leaving her little experiment to settle, she headed back upstairs to see how the others were doing, only to find that the monitors were all blank. She rewound the tapes, and it seemed that Will had destroyed the sunglasses' cameras, evidently seeing that as part of obeying Hypnotic's last order too. Replaying the final few minutes of footage before the monitors were all dead, the last thing Denise heard was Hypnotic saying, presumably to Will, '_Now you will take us to the Ultra-Max and you will –'_, after which the video feed was lost.

The Ultimate Security Prison for super-powered offenders? What could she want there? Just another thing about this whole set-up that was totally out of character. It was a well-known fact, almost a trademark, that Hypnotic worked alone and she was on no one's payroll. So who could she possibly be wanting to break out?

Musing over the oddities of the situation, Denise went back down to Ethan's lab to check the test tubes. As she'd suspected, there were tiny crystals in the bottom of two of the test tubes that had evidently been left behind in the syringes. She could rule out the possibility of it just being a coincidence because she knew that if the antidote was missing any of its ingredients it simply wouldn't work.

Just then the elevator arrived with a ding.

"Welcome back," said Denise without looking around.

Warren smiled slightly, knowing she meant more than just to the building, and crossed to Ethan's cabinets next to her. After a few moments of searching he found a bottle of the headache cocktail Ethan had developed for him, and he handed it to Denise. "Could you fill a syringe for me, please?"

"How bad is it?" she asked sympathetically, taking the bottle and picking up a new syringe.

"Not too bad."

She finished with the syringe and handed it back to him. "If you need an injection, how can it be 'not too bad'?"

"I was expecting it to be a lot worse. I should probably be passed out by now, not that I'm complaining." He flicked a neutralizer around his wrist and injected himself. "How's it going with the others?" he asked as he sat down at Ethan's desk to wait for the medication to take effect.

"Fine up until the antidote didn't work on Will and he destroyed the surveillance equipment."

"Zach must've gone spare."

"Uh no. It didn't work on _him_ either."

Warren looked up sharply and instantly regretted the sudden movement. "Any idea why not?" he asked, closing his eyes and rubbing his temples.

"I have a pretty good idea actually. Judging from the precipitate remaining in two of the syringes – "

"The short version, please. I already have a headache."

She rolled her eyes, which he fortunately couldn't see, and tried a different approach. "It's like when you haven't stirred the sugar in your coffee properly. It doesn't taste as sweet and there's some left behind in the cup."

Warren mumbled something about drinking his coffee without sugar, and then he pulled himself together. "Okay, so it's a question of what, making sure the antidote's stirred properly?"

"Yes, it requires agitation. You need to shake up the syringe before administering the dose. I know, it's ridiculous that the problem should be something so simple, but –"

"Yeah yeah. How much more of the stuff do you have ready?"

"Plenty, and I think you're going to need it."

"Why?"

"The last order I heard her give was for Will to take her to the Ultra-Max."

"So this is all for a prison break?" Warren thought for a bit before saying, "I'm assuming the two of them will still be under her control even in there?"

Denise nodded and was about to elaborate, but he got up carefully and went over to Zach's workshop. She trailed behind him curiously as he crossed to a cupboard in the corner, warning her to stand well clear as he opened the door from as far to one side as he could. The reason for his caution became clear when the door opened and an avalanche of gadgets from the cupboard poured out over the floor.

"What's that lot?" she asked.

Warren started hunting through the scattered debris of half-broken gizmos. "Super villains' weapons and other toys confiscated by Stronghold over the years. But, unlike his father who has all of his trophies on display, Will just gives his to Z to play with."

"What are you looking for?"

"Well, I reckon Stronghold might think it a little suspicious if I just waltz into the Ultra-Max, apparently on some sort of rescue mission, unarmed." He picked up a tranquilizer dart gun which appeared to be in working order.

"Yeah, but can you even shoot with a gun?" Denise pointed out.

"Never tried." He took a shot at the cushion on a nearby couch but his aim was way off. "Okay, apparently not. But Stronghold doesn't know that, so I can at least look the part." He fetched the dart that he'd just fired and handed it to her. "Can you fill this with the antidote?"

She looked at it doubtfully as she took it. "With that little volume, the effects will be minimal."

"Yeah, well, so are my chances of actually hitting anyone."

Denise smiled slightly as realization dawned. "It's a red herring."

Warren nodded and then changed the topic. "At least she won't be able to get anyone else under her control in there."

"You wish. Her powers are required only in _creating_ the substance." She handed him the tranquilizer dart when she was finished with it, and he loaded it into the gun. "After that, the power neutralization zone will have no effect on administering it and giving orders."

"Then why this elaborate scheme to infiltrate the Guardians? Surely she could just 'hypnotize' her way past the guards and the security systems and everything?"

"Oh I'm sure she could 'hypnotize' her way _in_, that's subtle enough to not draw too much attention; the problem would be trying to get anyone out," Denise explained as she filled a number of syringes with the antidote. "She has to be in physical contact to administer the substance and give the orders. There are so many guards and people watching security cameras, some of them even from remote locations, that it would be really difficult for some arbitrary person to just walk out with a band of convicts." She handed him one of the syringes, which he shook up and then injected himself.

"So she recruits a little army to do her dirty work, and because they're _heroes_ they're free to leave with a few bad guys in tow," he surmised as she took the syringe back and checked that no residue had been left behind in it.

"Sure, if Will Stronghold tells the security forces that he's got orders to transport some prisoners, who'd even think they need stop him?"

"Mmm," Warren agreed. "Okay, I think that's probably enough. I need to get going." He took the syringes and put them carefully into the hidden pockets in his long coat. Picking up the dart gun he walked over to the elevator and hit the 'up' button. As she got into the elevator with him, he continued, "You'd better call the NCS for a clean-up crew to set up a blockade around the prison, but no one else goes in."

"You don't want to risk further contamination," she guessed.

"Yeah, also the guards in there are armed and there's a chance she's controlling at least some of them. If the military start storming the place, it could turn into a shootout."

On the upstairs level, Warren ducked behind the screen to quick-change into his uniform. He took an old pair of aviator sunglasses out of his locker, reckoning that Will would trash them as soon as he could so it was pointless to take a working pair.

"Warren, be careful," Denise said as he put the sunglasses on. "Some of the first orders she gave them were to not feel pain or fear for their lives, or let anything interfere with her plan. That's going to make Will more dangerous than you'd expect him to be with his powers neutralized. Zach too, actually. Don't underestimate him either."

"Thanks. Any tips for dealing with Hypnotic herself?"

She shrugged. "All you can really do is nullify her minions with the antidote and don't let her make any more. Without them she's pretty defenseless. The trick is knowing whether you've got them all – she could have some arbitrary person lurking somewhere and all she has to do is give an order… "

"Right." Warren picked up a roll of duct tape that was lying on Magenta's desk, and then went upstairs to the roof and flew off in the van.

* * *

"Sorry, no visitors today," said the guard at the first security checkpoint of the Ultra-Max, without even glancing up. Warren just leaned on the counter and after a few moments the guard looked up and, when he realized who it was, exclaimed, "I thought you were dead!" 

"I'm much better now, thanks," the pyro replied dryly. "Had any guests recently?"

"Uh, yeah, Eagle, Lumo and some civilians came to do a prisoner transfer."

"Right, well, I've come to help with that."

The guard thought about that for a moment, a delayed reaction which was a clear sign he was trying to check Warren's statement against his programming from Hypnotic, and then answered, "Okay. They're in the central control room next to the courtyard."

So far so good, and so Warren decided to push his luck a little. "You wanna let the guys at the other security checkpoints know that I'm coming? We're kinda on a tight schedule here and I really don't have time to keep going through all this."

This required a little more thought from the 'hypnotized' guard, but in the end he agreed. "Sure." Warren gave him a short smile and headed down the corridor. "Good to have you back, sir!" the guard called after him.

"Yeah, yeah," Warren muttered to himself. He passed the other checkpoints with ease and made his way to the central control room. All around him the activity of the prison seemed perfectly normal, which suggested that Hypnotic's plan to avoid suspicion was working.

The door to the control room was closed, and the only other entrance was through the courtyard, so he had no option but to simply walk in. He didn't really have the element of surprise at this point anyway, particularly considering all the security monitors in that room which would no doubt have given his presence away long ago.

It appeared that Will was trying to pull rank on the warden seated at his desk, while Hypnotic and Zach stood to one side. Warren noticed that his two friends were dressed in their uniforms, which certainly made things appear official. There had been a lot of debate that morning (was it really only that morning?) about whether or not to pack their uniforms, and now it turned out that the decision to take them was ironically helping Hypnotic's ruse to look more legit.

Beyond the warden's desk was a large window overlooking the indoor courtyard, where Warren could see an assembled group of super villain prisoners, including some rather familiar faces. As he watched, another prisoner was escorted to the courtyard by a guard, apparently at Will's instruction.

Layla and the others were strapped to chairs with cable ties in the corner closest to the door he had just entered. A security guard was covering them with his submachine gun. He appeared to be the only one of Hypnotic's crew who had noticed Warren's presence, but he didn't seem at all alarmed.

"I'm with them," said Warren softly, pointing to Hypnotic, Will and Zach.

"I know, sir," replied the guard, indicating his ear piece. Evidently the guard at the first security point had tipped this guy off too.

Warren nodded in response and walked quietly towards the desk where the warden was arguing with Will.

"I'm sorry, Eagle, but that's the regulation," he was saying, standing his ground despite Stronghold's imposing stance at his desk, "I can't allow prisoners from the D.I. row to be released into your custody without authorization from the National Council of Superheroes."

Warren raised his eyebrows at that. It suggested the possibility that Hypnotic was in league with inmates from the Dangerously Intelligent section of the solitary confinement wing, which could explain quite a lot.

The super villainess sighed impatiently and injected the warden with her spiked ring. As she was ordering him to release the prisoners she asked for, Will looked around and noticed Warren coming up behind him.

The pyro put up a bit of a fight for the sake of appearances, and then, with a suitably defiant glare, allowed Will to disarm him of the dart gun.

"This is my gun, you fool," Stronghold sneered. "Did you think I wouldn't know this is a lame attempt to dart me with that antidote?"

Even without his powers he was strong enough to smash the gun. As Warren had hoped, Will then seemed to be satisfied that he had successfully disarmed him. After destroying the sunglasses as expected, Will didn't search him further, which meant that the other syringes of the antidote were safe.

Hypnotic also seemed to think he was harmless. "I expect you've taken this antidote too?" she questioned, but he didn't bother answering. "Even so, you're powerless to stop me."

"Are you sure about that?" Warren asked as he casually tried to position himself within arm's reach of both Will and Zach.

"Why shouldn't I be?" she countered. "I am busy releasing some of the State's most powerful super villains, and very soon, they will all be controlled by one person."

"Let me guess, that person would be you."

She just stared at him for a moment and then, instead of answering, she turned around to view her future army, only to find that she had a mutiny on her hands. The gathered prisoners had evidently worked out that they far outnumbered the guards and made the most of the opportunity. In a few moments they were holding two of the guards hostage with their own weapons, but neither side was prepared to back down.

Hypnotic seemed to take a few seconds to realize that she needed to get the situation under control. Pressing an intercom button on the warden's desk, she snapped, "Security to the Central Control Room!"

Warren made use of the distraction to take out a pair of syringes and shake them up, about to inject Will and Zach when Hypnotic turned to them and ordered, "You two – go and sort them out!"

As her two minions headed for the other door which led to the courtyard, Warren made an attempt to inject Will, who was closest to him, but Will caught his wrist and gave it a crushing squeeze until the pyro had to let go of the syringe in pain. With a scornful look, Stronghold stood on the auto-injector as he reached for the chair next to him and swung it at Warren.

The blow crashed painfully into his ribs and threw him off balance, but thanks to years of training he managed to land on his feet in a low crouch. In almost the same motion he swung one leg around, hooking Will's ankle and knocking him on his back, but Stronghold was on his feet again in an instant and he kicked Warren backwards before he could get up.

This was getting old very fast. The no-pain business was working heavily in Stronghold's favor and Warren was tiring quickly, partially thanks to his previous heroics that day, not to mention his headache although that had mostly worn off. But, if he was honest with himself, he had to admit it was also largely due to being a bit out of shape after six months of inactivity. He would have to wrap this up soon.

He pulled himself to his feet and called after Will who was heading for the courtyard again. "Hey, while you're putting down the rebellion, who's protecting your mistress?" he challenged.

This conflict between orders stopped him short, and Warren was finally able to inject him in the neck, which caused him to blink a bit and look around in confusion. Warren left him and quickly went over to Hypnotic who was busy injecting the first few security guards who had arrived in response to her call. Tearing a piece of duct tape off the roll, Warren came up behind her and taped over her mouth before she was able to issue any orders. He dragged her quickly over to a chair and sat her down, binding her arms to it with cable ties.

He glanced over at the warden and the security guard who was holding Layla and the others captive, but fortunately neither jumped to Hypnotic's defense. Most likely, this was because the warden's only order had been to release the prisoners she wanted, and the guard had been ordered to not let the hostages escape, and as with Will the discord between that order and the need to protect Hypnotic was causing him to hesitate.

Warren was removing the super villainess's spiked ring from her finger when Zach seemed to notice that she was in trouble and headed back to rescue her.

"Snap out of it, Flyboy!" Warren growled over his shoulder.

"Oh hey, what are you doing here?" asked Will somewhat vaguely as he came up to the pyro.

Warren took out a syringe, not noticing the brief look of fear that crossed Hypnotic's face, and handed it to him. "Here. Go fix Z. And shake it up before you jab, okay." Warren removed the super villainess's ring and wrapped it up safely in duct tape.

"Right." It seemed Will was still a bit out of it, but he nonetheless managed to take care of injecting Zach with the antidote.

While Warren injected the warden, Will and Zach did the same for the security guard in the corner and released Layla, Kate, Maj and Ethan from their bonds. The warden seemed a bit dazed and confused when Warren told him to lockdown the prison, even after he saw the stand-off in the courtyard.

"Oh, I'll do it," said Magenta a bit impatiently, and she pushed him aside to sit at his computer. In seconds the whole prison was secure and anesthetic gas was released into the courtyard and adjacent corridors, rendering the battling super villains and guards unconscious almost immediately.

With the immediate threat taken care of, Ethan was taking a closer look at Hypnotic. "Do you have any more of the antidote left?" he asked Warren.

"Yeah, why?"

"I think _she's_ been 'hypnotized' herself."

A chorus of "What?" was followed by Kate asking, "Is that even possible?"

"It's the most likely explanation for the fact that the only time she showed fear during this entire time was briefly when Knight-Fire was holding a syringe of the antidote near her while she was powerless to escape," Ethan reasoned.

"So?" asked Warren.

"One of the first orders she gave us was to not reveal that we were under her control," he explained. "If she received the same command from whoever's controlling her, she would naturally consider the antidote to be a threat. Plus, she's taken a few moments over a couple of decisions she's made, and that's a pretty good sign that she's been 'hypnotized'."

Warren shrugged, reckoning it was worth a try. Taking out a syringe, he walked over to where Hypnotic was tied to the chair, and she starting to struggle as he approached. Will and Zach held her still while Warren injected her and then pulled the duct tape off her mouth.

She blinked slowly a couple of times as the antidote took effect and looked around in confusion.

"Who was controlling you?" Warren demanded.

Hypnotic appeared even more puzzled, so Ethan tried a different tack. "Who's the last person you remember talking to?"

The confusion gave way to a look of fury as she realized what had happened to her, and she spat out a name they knew… all too well.

* * *

_**A/N:**__ Thanks so much for all the reviews and encouragement! _

_Stay tuned for the final chapter whe__n all will be revealed…_


	14. Epilogue: Choose Your Battles

_**Disclaimer: **__I do not own Sky High or its characters, settings etc, all of which belong to Disney. Original characters and concepts belong to me._

**Epilogue****: Choose Your Battles**

Barron Battle didn't get many visitors.

It was one of the side effects of being in solitary that people needed special permission to visit him, not that many people bothered. But now this hero called 'Knight-Fire', who had succeeded in destroying the great super villain family, had no doubt come to rub his nose in it. Cocky little upstart, whoever he was. Hadn't he overheard some rumor that the guy was dead or something? Apparently not.

He didn't even bother turning around when the door of the interrogation room opened to admit his visitor and then closed again.

"So, the great superhero who crushed the Battle family," he said caustically, "Come to gloat, have you?"

"Actually I'm looking for information," came the reply.

"If you're trying to find my son so you can tie up all the loose ends, you won't get any help from me."

The response was laced with both amusement and sarcasm. "Your paternal concern for me is quite touching."

The super villain turned around in disbelief. "Warren??"

"Hello, dad." He couldn't believe how calm he was feeling. In fact, it was weird. He had spent a lot of his youth imagining this moment with varying degrees of bitterness and self-pity. He'd expected to feel anger, hurt, betrayal, as he finally faced his father the notorious super villain after all these years, but the strange thing was that he felt nothing.

The villain snorted. "Yeah, that figures. My own son destroys my family."

"Just keeping a little promise my mom made," replied Warren, but again, saying those words didn't bring the feeling of triumph he had expected. It was almost as if the man standing opposite him was a stranger, of no personal connection to him, either positive or negative. He could have been any super villain Warren had faced since becoming a hero.

"I thought you _weren't_ here to gloat," Battle reminded him.

Warren took off his sunglasses and settled himself in one of the chairs, forcing the question of his feelings aside for the moment. "I have it on good authority that you were the mastermind behind an escape attempt from this facility yesterday, and for obvious reasons we need to know how you organized it."

"What makes you think I would tell you anything?"

"Perhaps we can make some sort of deal."

"Can you get my sentence reduced?" Battle challenged with obvious disbelief.

"Not my call," responded Warren, and he ran a hand though his hair in an apparently casual gesture that drew attention to his multiple red streaks. "No, I was thinking more of a trade of information."

There had been some very colorful suggestions about how to extract the answers they needed from the man in a (relatively) legal manner, ranging from Chinese water torture to poison ivy to Vogon poetry. However, as Ethan pointed out, with an intelligent super villain like Barron Battle, they would get a lot further if they could offer him something to make it worth his while than they could with threats. And there was one particular fact Warren was pretty sure his father would be prepared to offer a great deal for.

The super villain sat down as well and gave a snort, purposefully not looking at his son.

'_Doesn't look like he's taking the bait,'_ commented Magenta on the comm from the central control room, where the others were all watching the scene play out.

Not yet, but he will thought Warren The whole fire elemental breeding business was far too important to the Battle family, and to Barron in particular, for him to be able to resist the temptation for long. Plus, Warren still had an ace up his sleeve.

"What makes you so sure I had anything to do with some escape attempt anyway?" the villain argued.

Warren took Hypnotic's spiked ring out of his pocket and pretended to be examining it curiously. "A small confession from the person you used for the job," he replied as he fiddled enticingly with the ring. "You know what they say about hell having no fury like a – "

He was cut off by Battle making a sudden lunge for the ring. Without even looking up, Warren made a 'come-here' gesture with his fingers and a flame construct appeared, apparently out of thin air, and swooped down to defend him. His father backed away quickly but with an expression of incredulity as he gazed at the fiery phoenix.

"How stupid do you think I am?" Warren asked, trying his best not to smirk as he ordered the construct aside with a gesture. The ring had, of course, been drained of Hypnotic's drug so he'd never been in any danger.

"Worth a try," replied Battle, obviously awestruck as he stared at the construct which took up residence in the corner of the room near the ceiling. "How can you even use your powers in here?"

"What makes you think I would tell you anything?" Warren responded, mimicking what his father had said earlier.

Battle understood what he meant straight away, and spent a few long moments looking between Warren and the flame construct, obviously struggling with himself before agreeing reluctantly. "Deal."

'_Yes!'_ came the exclamation from the control room.

It took Warren a lot of self-control to maintain his best poker-face. "You first."

"How about we take it in turns? You heroes are big on fairness, after all."

"Fine. You're still first."

"Whatever. What's your first question?"

"How did you make contact with Hypnotic?"

This was their biggest concern. Prisoners in solitary confinement had only extremely restricted communication with either the outside world or with one another, the Dangerously Violent ones for obvious reasons, and the Dangerously Intelligent ones for fear of what they might plot together. No letters were allowed in or out because of the danger of secret codes, and visits were only by special permission and were heavily monitored. If Barron Battle had found a way around these restrictions, that would be a serious breach of security.

"She made contact with me," answered Battle shortly.

"And?"

"My turn." The villain nodded at the phoenix hovering in the corner. "Tell me about that thing."

"It's a flame construct," replied Warren equally unhelpfully.

"I can see that. Care to elaborate?" But Warren just looked at him. "Oh, me first, I expect? Fine, she was using her powers to get information on the Battle family fortune."

Warren raised his eyebrows in surprise. "So she asks the person who's been out of the loop for years," he remarked, carefully not phrasing it as a question.

Battle shrugged. "She started with the current family leaders obviously, and then that moron who calls himself Hellfire told her that I have a private cache in a numbered account."

Warren was about to ask 'Do you?' but managed to stop himself in time before he wasted a question. "And then you turned the tables on her," he prompted instead.

"My turn first," replied the super villain with a _Nice try_ look. "How are you able to control that construct in here?"

"I'm not. Well, not with my powers, at least. While I was outside of the neutralization zone I instructed it to obey visual commands instead of mental ones. Then I released it from my control, and it came in with me."

"But you can't have brought it with you," Battle argued. "It appeared out of nowhere. How did you do that?"

Warren countered with a question of his own. "How did you get Hypnotic under your control?"

The villain hesitated for a moment before deciding it was worth his while to answer properly. "Well, I had no idea what she was up to, but when she tried to inject me with that spiky ring of hers I caught her hand in time and shoved it down onto her thigh, which evidently gave her a dose of her own poison. Then, when I demanded she tell me what that was all about, to my surprise, she told me. Everything. She even told me how she'd 'influenced' the duty warden to halt the security tape recordings while she was here, so nobody would know about our little meeting."

'_Well, that definitely proves that anybody can use her formula to control people,'_ Ethan commented.

'_That might explain why the NCS private file on her is so well protected,' _Maj realized._ 'Imagine if that kind of intel fell into the wrong hands.'_

"I think that answers your question," Battle continued. "Now, answer mine. How did you do that?"

In response, Warren snapped his fingers and the construct dispersed into sparks that spread out until they were barely noticeable in the air. After a few seconds he gave the 'come-here' gesture he had earlier and the construct re-formed.

"Like that," he said.

But his father wasn't going to let him get away with not explaining it. "That's just showing off; you didn't actually answer my question. I saw Hellfire practicing with his powers once, soon after he got his pyro-construction. When he dispersed a construct, it turned into an unrelated collection of sparks. It simply wasn't possible to make those same sparks re-form into a coherent entity again."

Warren shrugged. "I can't actually explain the mechanics of how I do that. It's something I discovered a few months ago I can just … _do_."

He hoped Kate wouldn't be too offended that he left out the fact that she could do it too. If she didn't understand, he'd have to explain later that he was just being discreet with what details he gave. If Barron Battle ever did escape or find a way to make contact with the outside world, Warren didn't want his friends to be endangered. It was only his own information he was prepared to disclose.

He added, "I'm sorry, I can't explain it any better than that." The villain seemed to accept his answer, so he went on to his next question. "What's with the immunity to pain thing? It was useful to us; that's how we figured something was up, but how did that fit into your grand plan?"

"I thought that was a nice touch, personally," Battle smirked. "Along with not fearing for their own lives, that makes the perfect soldier, don't you think?"

"Except when they fall down dead because they didn't know they were injured," Warren pointed out.

Battle just shrugged as if to say, 'What's one soldier more or less?', and then he leant forward, looking almost nervous in his anticipation as he asked the question Warren had been waiting for.

"Are you a fire elemental?"

"I am."

"A little more than detail than that?" Battle asked a bit impatiently. "I've given you more than one-word answers, you know."

"What do you want me to tell you?" Warren responded. "Yes, I'm classed as a fire elemental on account of having all four fire-based powers."

"Four?" the villain queried curiously. "I thought it was three."

"Yeah, well, a friend of mine's about to publish a research paper that claims that pyro-absorption is a separate power in its own right."

"Either way, it proves I was right all along," gloated Battle. "_They_ all thought that marrying your mother would weaken the bloodline, but my experiment worked! I was right!"

"Actually, it's quite ironic," commented Warren, beginning to find the man's smugness a bit irritating, "That the fire elemental you people spent so long trying to create ended up being part of the family's downfall."

That certainly wiped the smug look off his father's face, and the arrogance was replaced by a closed-off scowl. Warren began to wonder if he'd maybe over-played his hand, and the super villain would stop cooperating. After all, he had answered the question his father wanted answered the most.

Still, it wouldn't hurt to try a final question, particularly one which could be seen as an open invitation to monologue. "Okay, last question: why such an elaborate scheme? She told you there'd be no evidence of her visit; surely she could get you out of here while she was at it?"

"That was my first thought too. But then it occurred to me, once I was out, what would I do? Thanks to you I didn't exactly have a family business to return to, but I supposed I could start out as a solo villain with little miss hypnotist as my sidekick, helping to pave the way for me. But why stop there, when all the human resources I needed were right here? Some of the most brilliant criminal minds and some of the most destructive powers, and they would all be under my control."

"Ready-made empire," Warren remarked. "Pretty ambitious."

"They didn't put me in Dangerously Intelligent for nothing, you know." The smugness was back. "And, of course, getting _heroes_ to enact my prison break, well, I'm sure you can appreciate the beautiful irony there. Which brings me to _my_ final question. You've felt the full extent of your power; can you _really_ say that limiting yourself to the constraints of superheroism and devoting your powers to the service of others is more personally satisfying than using your potential for yourself?"

Warren stared at his father for a long moment, trying to gather his thoughts before answering.

The question had hit awfully close to the bone considering his dream about going dark side which he'd been so paranoid about, and he could imagine Layla, Will and the others sharing glances in the control room.

At first he was tempted give some kind of sarcastic response about his mom having given him a proper upbringing in morals and ethics, but then he felt an intense rush of pity for his father that he had never known what it felt like to truly be a hero. All the time he was masquerading as one of the good guys, he'd had to close himself off to those kinds of emotions which might compromise or interfere with his assignment for the Battle family, and Warren couldn't help feeling sorry for him. He suddenly realized that he was on his way to forgiving his father. Not because the man deserved it or even wanted it, but because he wasn't worth the bitterness and anger that holding a grudge caused. That was a lesson Warren had learnt the hard way from seeing how his resentment towards the Battle family had sent him awfully close to the edge.

Feeling oddly liberated by that revelation, Warren took a deep breath and answered the question as best and honestly as he could. "I agree, powering up is an incredible rush, I can't deny that. But then it's over. It will never provide the ongoing emotional fulfillment of knowing you've really made a difference; saved someone's life or made their world a better place."

He put his sunglasses back on and stood up. "I wish you could know that feeling," he said sadly.

His father just looked at him without showing any overt response, but his expression was not openly hostile either.

Warren snapped his fingers at the construct to instruct it to disperse and then gestured to the cloud of sparks to follow him as he walked out of the room, leaving his father, he hoped, with something to think about.

* * *

It was amazing how fast things returned to normal. Then again, there's nothing like sharing two weeks' worth of facing mad scientists with doomsday devices, natural disasters, rampaging giant robots and super villains plotting world domination to help Warren to fit back into his place on the team again. 

The Guardians were all gathered in their headquarters for their annual Star Wars marathon, apart from Kate and Layla who had gone to get the food and snacks for the occasion. There was nothing sexist about this; they'd offered, in fact. Warren privately suspected it was one of those female bonding things.

Maj and Zach were arguing over whether they should start watching at Phantom Menace, being the beginning of the series, or A New Hope, because last time everybody had fallen asleep at the end of Episode III so it was only fair to start at Episode IV this time. At the same time they were playing Uno with Will and Warren, but none of them seemed to be really paying attention or they would have noticed that Zach had only one card left.

Ethan and Denise were playing chess. After some pointed encouragement from the rest of the team, Warren in particular, Ethan had finally gotten up the courage to ask her out, and after the whole Hypnotic incident she was practically one of the group already. She'd also helped them with a cover story to inoculate the whole of Maxville with the antidote just in case Hypnotic left any 'hypnotized' minions around that they didn't know about.

That pretty much took care of the fallout from that incident, apart from the issue of Warren's forfeit, although strictly that was earned earlier that day. When the team had been heading back to headquarters after Hypnotic's confession, they'd happened to see the news report of Warren's, or rather, Knight-Fire's big comeback. Even though the outcome had been exactly what everyone needed, they were less than impressed with the danger he had intentionally placed himself in.

When they got back to headquarters, and Zach saw his gadget collection spilled all over the floor, it seemed only appropriate that Warren's punishment should be re-packing the cupboard. At the time he'd been too tired to argue terms and conditions, and he'd only discovered later that the fine print gave him the chore of re-packing it every time it had to be opened when Will brought home something new, for a whole month.

Oh well, it was a small price to pay for the sake of being one of them again. Not that he'd let them know that he felt that way, of course. Wouldn't want anyone to think he'd gone soft.

Suddenly his attention was brought back to the game by Maj calling, "Hey, Hothead, focus!" while studiously ignoring Zach's sad attempts to use Jedi mind tricks on her to get his way. Of course, at any moment the Red Telephone could ring, and the question of where their marathon should start would become quite irrelevant, but that was all part of the job in this business.

At that point Zach played his final card and won the game, a momentous event which apparently deserved a victory lap around the headquarters.

Layla and Kate arrived just then. "What's with him?" Kate asked as she put the food down on the table.

"He won," replied Will, looking as surprised as everyone else. "It must be the first time in years."

Layla came up and stood behind Warren's chair, hugging him from behind. Under the pretense of tucking his hair behind his ear, she asked very quietly, "You didn't _let_ him win, by any chance, did you?"

"Actually, no, believe it or not," replied Warren, catching one of her hands and giving it a quick kiss before gathering up the cards to shuffle them. "Give him a little credit, huh?"

At that point, Zach knocked Ethan and Denise's chessboard off the coffee table, slipped on one of the chess pieces and landed in an undignified heap on the floor.

Warren and Layla shared an amused glance and then he went back to shuffling the cards.

Things were definitely back to normal.

**The End**

* * *

_**A/N:**__ That's all, folks! For now, at least. I have some plans for a shortish sequel, but I'm not making any promises yet..._

_So,__ thanks to everyone who has been reading, and to those who have put this story on their favorites, and very special thanks and appreciation for all the reviews and PMs, they've really kept me going. :D_


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